The Three Competencies of the Mentor Role

The three main competencies of the Mentor Role are "understanding yourself and others, interpersonal communication and developing others" (Hesketh et al pp 4). Because high school students are less experienced the author used this role continually in an effort to develop his students and guide them through their learning experiences. Per Hesketh et al the author must determine his own strengths and weaknesses so he can maximize them. "Your weaknesses can be overcome through self-development" (Hesketh et al. 1997 pp 51). By researching all he could about the Health Science Technology program, the author was able to teach with confidence because he had decreased any weaknesses he had in his knowledge.

As the author researched the Mentor Role he came across what he thought was an interesting article in the January 11, 2004 edition of Parade magazine, which is a part of the Dallas Morning News newspaper. The article had a caption of "Thank a Mentor". As the author read through the article, it stated how volunteer mentors change lives. The article stated that the Harvard Mentoring Project met with numerous celebrities and conducted interviews with them to determine whether they had been mentored or not. The article also stated that January is National Mentoring Month (Parade, 11 January 2004). Mentoring was used by the author to assist students in high school who were seeking healthcare careers. Assisting the students with determining their strengths and learning their areas of interest helped the author in developing others. As a school instructor, the author thought it was crucial that he mentor his students.

The three main competencies for the Facilitator Role are "team membership, participative decision making, and managing conflicts" (Hesketh et al 1997 pp 3). The author used this role to encourage his students to participate in clinical rotations and be team members. Allowing the students to participate in clinical rotations and recognize their roles helped them understand how to build and be a part of a team. High school students are not always willing to participate due to peer pressure; this was very challenging for the author. This is something that the author learned took a great deal of work with some students.

"We must all take responsibility for building teams and for maintaining cohesion.