The Place of Mentoring in Training and

Building the Multidisciplinary Team

Gilly Johnson, Director, Australian Mentor Centre

Australian General Practice Network Forum 2008
Darwin, Northern Territory
 Starting Point

‘Modern organisations ignore learning at the cost of their present and future success. In the complex
enterprises of the new millennium, learning has moved from the periphery – from something which
prepared people for employment – to the lifeblood which sustains them.’
(Understanding Learning at Work, Boud & Garrick)

• The Multidisciplinary Team - an integrated and cohesive health support team working to
achieve a common and shared goal

• This team requires:

– Professional education
– Training and skills coaching for ongoing skills and technical development - performance
– Mentoring for career and professional development, including professional socialisation
– Leadership and team development
– Communication strategies that support both the individual and collaborative

• This presentation will focus on the place of mentoring in training and building the MDT
 Learning Framework & the GP Super Clinic

‘It is intended that each GP Super Clinic will bring together general practitioners, nurses,
visiting medical specialists, allied health professionals and other health care
providers to deliver better health care, tailored to the needs and priorities of the local
community.’ (www.health.gov.au)

• Interprofessional learning is best described as situations where healthcare

professionals:
– learn together
– learn from each other, and
– learn about each other's roles, in order to
– improve collaboration and quality of care
(Centre for Advancement of Interprofessional Education, 1997)

• Mentoring can form a complimentary developmental role to IPL and single

profession activities
 Characteristics of Mentoring

• ‘… out of the reporting line …’

• ‘… formal in the sense that it is part of a structured program – there is both

organisational purpose and relationship purpose …’

• ‘… one where the power and authority of the mentor are either irrelevant to the
relationship or are purposefully “parked” by the participants; where the experience
gap rather than the status gap drives the processes of learning and career
management …’

(The Situational Mentor, Clutterbuck & Lane, p43)

 More About Mentoring

Approaches of mentoring:
• Sponsorship
• Learning and Development

Spectrum of mentoring interactions can be:

• Formal
• Informal
• Situational

Models of mentoring can include:

• 1:1 mentoring (traditional, peer or reverse)
• Group mentoring (groups and circles)
 Building the MDT

• Bruce Tuckman in 1965 first proposed the model of group or team development
which he noted as being: ‘necessary and inevitable in order for a team to grow, to
face up to challenges, to tackle problems, to find solutions, to plan work, and to
deliver results’

• These stages are:

– Forming ...
– Storming
– Norming
– Performing

• Tuckman later added a 5th stage - adjourning

 Mentoring and the GP Super Clinic

• 1:1 Mentoring
– New to the general practice environment but experienced health professionals
– Graduates and trainee professionals

• Group Mentoring
– Transition to new roles eg. Clinical to management
– IPL support – eg. Mentoring groups following an IPL activity (post-activity)

• Mentoring Circles
– Peer based multi-professional – connected theme of development eg. Clinic Managers
 The Place of Mentoring in the Team

Forming Storming Norming Performing

Training Team skills Systems and Standards Reflective practice
Communication processes

Mentoring Buddy mentoring Peer mentoring Internal and Internal and

relationships relationships external mentoring external mentoring
relationships relationships

Models 1-1 Group All All

Group Circles Multi Super Clinic Multi Super Clinic
 In Action

• National Mentoring Pilot for Nurses in General Practice

– 1:1 Partnerships, Mentoring Groups and Mentoring Circles
– Themes with a professional development focus (clinical to non-clinical)
– Framework could be extended to IPL based mentoring and training activities for MDT/Super Clinics

• St Kings and St Guys (UK)

– Multi professional Mentoring Scheme
– hwww.ncas-resource.npsa.nhs.uk/?EntryId13=9007&char=G

• The Expert Patient

– ‘My patient understands the disease better than I do’ - Patient as Mentor
– www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidanc
e/DH_4006801
 In Closing

• Consider mentoring as a valuable workforce and team development activity – which

is complimentary to Management, Clinical Supervisory activities, training and
education – have it on the workforce development agenda

• Consider the role of IPL as the framework which could underpin mentoring activities
in a general practice environment such as the GP Super Clinic

• Identify appropriate models of mentoring to be embedded in the building of the

MDT at:
– Commencement stages
– Building stages
– Performing stages