Utilizing Narrative stories to foster cross-cultural and racial connections in mentoring relationships
Utilizing Narrative stories to foster cross-cultural and racial connections in mentoring relationships
Fly in the Buttermilk is a series of educational PowerPoints and worksheets to improve cross-cultural and racial differences between mentors and their mentees. The goal is to improve self-awareness of past traumas and identify shared experiences by utilizing the power of narrative stories. We have presented our first workshop to six different audiences, including the Association of Pediatric Program Directors (APPD) Spring Meeting, Pediatric Hospital Medicine's (PHM) annual conferences, Stanford's Medical Innovation conference, and locally with our faculty development courses and Graduate Medical Education retreats.
The state of society that we live in today highlights and polarizes differences among people. Social media, the news, television, and movies dispel the belief that we all have similarities. Unfortunately, this also applies to the power dynamic our learners experience throughout medical school, residency, and fellowship. During this period, our learners are most at risk for feelings of isolation, lack of connection, and need to prove they are worthy of being in medicine. Mentorship has been proven to improve those feelings of isolation by forming relationships but has also been shown to be detrimental if done carelessly. This curriculum directly discusses themes that can hamper the residency experience for underrepresented medicine trainees or members of marginalized communities while providing opportunities for mentors of all backgrounds to empathize and recognize their struggles as developing professionals. In addition, the provided worksheet allows both the resident and mentor to work through their past traumas to get a foundation for her to establish vulnerability and connectedness.
Autobiography about his life from 1913-2006
The five themes were extrapolated from this qualitative study at Southeastern University. The title is an homage to Cecil Reed's autobiography.
THE FIVE THEMES:
Unfairness/ Sabotage/ Condescension
Isolation and Connection
They seem the same, I'm the one who's different.
I have to prove I'm worthy to be here
Invisibility and Supervisibility