Why MSDC Created a Mentoring Program, and How You Can Participate August 10, 2022

A mentor enables a person to achieve. A hero shows what achievement looks like.

John Cromwell Mather

Almost one year ago, I was sworn in as president of the Medical Society of DC. That night at the AIA, I shared my goals for my twelve months as president, including the creation of a new DC physician mentoring program.

As our 2022 annual meeting approaches, I wanted to share how you can help build a sustainable mentorship program. This is the Society’s way of supporting our next generation of physicians and continuing to make DC the best place to practice medicine.

How to join the mentorship program

The program is open to all MSDC members.

If you are a medical student in the DC area, make sure you are signed up as an MSDC member to receive the latest news about the program. It’s complimentary. To become a mentee, email hay@msdc.org to join the mentee list and receive instructions on how we will pair mentors and mentees

If you are an academic attending, work in private practice or for a large corporation, or a non-practicing physician who believes you can give back to the next generation of physician leaders, use this convenient form to share your interest and expertise.

How the program works

MSDC is working with area medical schools to spread the word about the program. Once we have a list of mentors and mentees, we will offer mentees information about mentors that meet their profile or interests. The mentee can contact the potential mentor and arrange a call, meeting, or coffee.

All mentors indicate their time available to serve as mentors, allowing mentees to know how often they can expect to meet with their mentor and plan accordingly. In addition to specialty, mentors are asked to share their areas of interest for mentoring, to allow for mentoring in areas like LGBTQ medicine, underrepresented communities, and advocacy areas.

In the future, as the program evolves, MSDC may open the program up to group or online mentoring.

Why is MSDC creating a mentoring program?

Why is MSDC creating this program now, when many specialty organizations have their own mentoring programs for students? For the same reason we have our other activities – to unite the District’s medical community regardless of specialty.

We know that many students have a specialty in mind but want to expand their network beyond just their medical cohort. They may want to learn from someone of a different medical experience, to explore other specialties or to build their network prior to practice.

Students (and mentors) also may want mentoring in areas other than practice. Physicians from underrepresented communities, the LGBTQ community, and women physicians all benefit professionally from mentorship to allow them to create a support network regardless of specialty.

The District is also a hub of medical brilliance and expertise. Simply allowing students access to this community – especially those outside of their school – makes these students better physicians and allows mentors to share hard-earned knowledge to the next generation.

To make DC the best place to practice medicine, we need to create a continuous conduit of experience and information from one generation to the next. MSDC’s mentorship program does this – regardless of specialty, school, or location in DC.