Accidental mentoring
Formal mentoring programs can be effective in reducing professional isolation, but, particularly in small organisations, they can place a high burden on a few more experienced people to ‘look after’ new and more junior staff. ‘Accidental mentoring’ occurs when a more experienced person provides support around a short-term problem without a formal request from the organisation to do so. Accidental mentoring can be as simple as a five or ten-minute conversation.
ImplementabilityMedium hard to implement: may take some organizational change to implement.
The size of the organization will have a significant impact on the outcome and success of accidental mentoring. It is important not to overwhelm the ‘mentor’ and ensure that they have the capacity to undertake a mentoring role.
Success factors
Less experienced staff need to feel confident that they can approach their colleagues for advice. Mentors need to feel that they are not responsible for all junior staff. A workplace culture which encourages mutual support and acknowledges mentoring incidents will be most successful.
Challenges
Management needs to recognise the value of these interactions between staff and allow time in the work schedule for staff to reflect and engage in this way. Smaller organisations may find accidental mentoring as difficult as formal mentoring if there are few experienced workers.
In rural remote communities, professionals often work in isolation, without access to specialist support that they may have enjoyed in previous urban roles or in their training. Rural and remote health leaders who report that they have overcome challenges in recruitment and retention of professionals typically report that they consider supporting team cohesion to be a major part of their role. They involve their team of professionals in decisions on who to recruit to the team, they create opportunities for their team to socialize and learn together, and offer them some control over their work environments (shift scheduling, strategic planning, creation of leadership roles among professionals, such as regional professional development lead).
Supporting your professional teams to access professional development that is relevant to their rural and remote work environment can be a significant factor in enhancing the quality of services in your community and in retention of employees. A mixture of well designed “at distance or “technology enhanced” education programmes together with some “face-to-face” education and training should be offered.
Developing an academic/training mandate for an organization, and potentially seeking funds to allow professional teams to dedicate time to training the professionals of the future will lead to a strong return on investment. There is a clear and substantial body of evidence which confirms that offering health professional training in rural and remote environments leads to increased retention of those professionals. Furthermore, training and rural and remote environments ensures that professionals have the unique skills that are needed for rural practice.
Mills JE, Francis K, Bonner A. The accidental mentor: Australian rural nurses developing supportive relationships in the workplace. Rural and Remote Health(Internet) 2007; 7: 842. Available: http://www.rrh.org.au/articles/subviewnew.asp?ArticleID=842