Kindling The Fire: The Role of Mentorship in Professional Development

Mentorship is the cornerstone of professional growth. Mentorship is foundational to the development of pharmacists and other healthcare professionals who combine advanced skill sets with high character and to the advancement of the healthcare profession as a whole. Mentorship must be a deliberate experience for both the mentor and the mentee. As such, purposeful reflection on mentorship philosophies, characteristics of ideal mentors and mentees, and best practices is warranted. The purpose of this review is to provide a construct for mentorship in the context of a pharmacy and healthcare career, with a focus on the types and benefits of mentoring relationships and discussion of what qualities and practices ‘kindle the fire’ in the minds of the next generation of the healthcare profession. Using the 5 ethical principles of medicine applied to mentorship, the audience will be supplied with the science behind the importance of mentorship and then a construct for “best practices” to being both an ideal mentor and mentee. From there, these principles will be applied to specific cases for discussion and thought in order to enhance an individual’s skills at being a mentor (and a mentee).