Mentoring

Mentoring is an important career-based resource that exists outside of structured supervision and training requirements. While many trainees do want to discuss their training, many also want a mentor to help guide them in the next step in their careers. Our early career psychiatrist mentees are especially looking for mentors to assist with future career and family planning as well as achieving work and life balance. 

We recommend that mentors and mentees meet for 1–2 hours each month over the 8-month program, but this is something you can agree with your mentee. We take into consideration how much time you have available to mentor each month and look to pair you with a mentee with similar expectations. Around 7 hours' training and preparation time is required for mentors, with all materials and resources provided by the College. 

We complete a detailed process and every mentoring pairing partnership is carefully considered. Whilst we do ask for a lot of information from you when you apply, it does help us to make the best possible match with an appropriate mentee. We check for potential conflicts of interest, and give both the proposed mentor and mentee the opportunity to review the proposed partnership before we introduce them. We don’t make an introduction if an issue is raised. The program is run by a dedicated College team, with each application and pairing reviewed and supported throughout the program’s duration. 

We complete a detailed process and every mentoring pairing partnership is carefully considered. Whilst we do ask for a lot of information from you when you apply, it does help us to make the best possible match with an appropriate mentee. We check for potential conflicts of interest, and give both the proposed mentor and mentee the opportunity to review the proposed partnership before we introduce them. We don’t make an introduction if an issue is raised. The program is run by a dedicated College team, with each application and pairing reviewed and supported throughout the program’s duration. 

We facilitate the initial mentoring pairing, provide training and resources, and to offer any support, if needed. The discussions between mentor and mentee are confidential. If you have any concerns for your mentee, or an issue with the partnership, we can assist. 

Mentors can record time spent mentoring under Section 4. Keep a record of your meetings as evidence for claims. Learnit modules completed for the Mentoring Program are automatically recorded on MyCPD. 

The RANZCP Mentoring program is mentee led. This means it is the responsibility of the mentee to initiate first contact with their assigned mentor. If you haven’t heard from your mentee, please contact the College mentoring team (mentoring@ranzcp.org). Our staff can then reach out to check if the mentee needs assistance.

Mentoring is not private psychotherapy. If your mentee is struggling, or you feel they need additional support outside the scope of your mentoring partnership, you can direct them to the Member Wellbeing Support Hub that includes a wide range of supports, information and options that may assist them. If they need coaching or training support, you can contact the College mentoring team (mentoring@ranzcp.org) and we can assist with what additional support they need.

The Mentoring Handbook is provided to give the mentee and mentor the tools to set up their mentoring partnership to make it as successful as possible. The Mentoring Partnership Agreement (MPA) is an important framework for establishing your goals and setting expectations for the partnership. We encourage you discuss the MPA with your mentoring partner at the beginning of your partnership, and then to take time to review it throughout the program.