Royal Pharmaceutical Society

Don’t stop mentoring during the COVID-19 pandemic

Although social distancing is necessary during this pandemic, it doesn’t mean you can’t begin or maintain a mentoring relationship.

Explore new ways of staying connected, show that you care, validate feelings of distress, develop talent, and challenge yourself to support a colleague through mentoring. RPS Mentoring Platform is one such place to connect online.


COCOA tips for Mentors to help you during this hard time:

Communicate
Find time for a phone call or a video meeting, even if it is only for a few minutes to chat about something trivial. Everyone is experiencing uncertainty and new demands. Let your mentoring be something you can depend on.

Open up
As a Mentor – pay attention to your own feelings too and don’t be afraid to open up and share your fears and concerns. Self-care is vital and your wellbeing is important.

Care
Show care and compassion: Use your listening skills and focus on your mentee’s concerns. Whether it is financial, health, job, and family matters – everything is likely to be a pressing issue during this crisis. Demonstrate that you hear and understand.

Offer support
If you can, try to provide support that will enable your mentees to overcome challenges on their own. As a Mentor – you aren’t there to rescue or fix everything. Try to provide strategies, skills, and resources your mentees can use to learn and to grow so that they can address their challenges themselves.

Adapt
You might need to work around childcare, or other commitments of your own, that are now part of this new working environment. If you are having to work in a room with other members of your family, don’t hide those personal challenges. Use them to develop a friendly connection, sharing your situation makes it more comfortable for your mentees to share theirs.


RPS are very grateful to those of you who are offering mentoring during this time. A big thank you for sharing your skills and helping the profession.

We are here to support all RPS members.

To start mentoring today – visit: www.rpharms.com/mentoring

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