Mentor is a character from Homer’s Odyssey. In the epic poem, he was a wise and faithful friend of Ulysses, king of Ithaca. Upon leaving for the Trojan War, Ulysses leaves his son, Telemachus, under Mentor’s care. Later, not knowing the whereabouts of his father, Telemachus decides to go out looking for him. Because he was too young, he left in the company of Mentor, who gave him support, guidance and inspiration for the journey.

Mentoring 2.0 was created with the purpose of being a follow-up, interaction and discussion project between a Specific Training Intern (or, alternatively, an Intern, Specialist or Researcher) and a group of students from clinical years.

In both examples, support, guidance and follow-up have the same purpose: to pass on hard-won wisdom to a traveling companion. The role is to create a safe context for your mentee’s growth.

The Mentoring 2.0 (CO-Ment) Organizing Committee, which works together with the Student Support Office (GAE), develops teamwork to, step by step, outline initiatives that will provide insight into specific specialties or themes that are essential to the development of medical internships, as well as clarifying doubts about these issues. And thus, the Job Talks were created.

On February 26 and 27, another session was held, which gave students the opportunity to attend a series of lectures on different professional pathways in the field of Medicine, a series of Speed Dating sessions with Specialists and Internal Physicians, as well as two Workshops thought of as important tools for future challenges. The Conferences brought together nearly 170 participants in these two days. The Workshops had 20 participants and Speed Dating sessions were held with 14students.

The Sessions took place at FMUL’s Aula Magna, in the Amphitheatres of the Egas Moniz building as well as in classrooms, and were attended by both Board and student representatives. This edition was also supported by the Solvin’it project.

The two-day programme was created because “there is so much beyond the clinical area. Today’s physicians are multidisciplinary and require a number of tools to help them in their professional career and there is still much to learn, and this learning is achieved through examples and testimonials.” Explained Marco Tomaz, coordinator of the AEFML Mentoring Project.

Topics such as Proximity Medicine, Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Medicine, Medical Consulting, the Undifferentiated Physician and Medical Emergency were thought of as alternative examples to clinical practice, a way for today’s students to know other realities and other possibilities for their future.

The Speed Datings were attended by guests from various fields, such as General and Family Medicine, Psychiatry, Intensive Medicine, General Surgery, Paediatrics and Neurology, among others, and consisted of brief 10-minute meetings between specialist and students in an exchange of knowledge, a great opportunity to answer any doubts.

The feedback was quite positive, as we can see from some of the testimonials:

“This initiative was innovative and very fruitful, considering that many clinical students are not aware of the life of a specialist/intern, and liking the field is sometimes not enough to make a decision.”

“Speed dating – an innovative, fun and relevant initiative. To be repeated!”

“More time. It was too fast and there was so MUCH to ask! Excellent initiative!”

We have already thought of topics of the next edition. The topics are not exhausted and neither are the guests. This project is already a success among medical students, not only from our school; other Medical Colleges have already expressed their interest in knowing more about the Mentoring work developed at FMUL and in replicating the Job Talks model at their Institutions.

A few testimonials regarding this Project:

João Borralho (speaker)

Job Talks are an excellent opportunity to show the path that many medical students can take in the future. Often, when we are in college, we focus solely on the next exam, the next presentation, and we may sometimes lose focus on the greater goal of being a physician and on what will happen after college is over.

These lectures provide an excellent idea of the possibilities that exist in a very informal way, clarifying several doubts, both regarding what happens at the General Training Centre and in specific training. I wish I had these kinds of presentations when I was a student. However, experiencing this as a speaker is also very interesting because it allows us to convey the message that, in reality, finishing school is not the end of anything, as medical education is continuous and we will always be students.

Susana Duarte – 4TH-YEAR STUDENT

Job Talks recovered the concept of Seminars on Career Prospects that were done up until a few years ago, giving us, students, the opportunity to speak with specialists trained in the most diverse areas and also colleagues of the general training (old common year), something that is complicated to achieve in our daily lives, for several reasons.

In this sense, it was a very positive experience, as it allowed us to obtain a perspective perhaps closer to reality about what awaits us in a few years’ time and what course we will have to take to achieve it (and even what our options are if we fail to do so), which are issues that, as we progress in our studies, increasingly plague us, but for which, in general, there is not much room for debate with health professionals, and it is precisely this space that this project aims, at least in part, to fill. I think it achieved it quite successfully.

In addition, the lectures that preceded the Job Talks were also very relevant and featured talented and engaging speakers. All in all, I think this edition was a great event and the Mentoring 2.0 team deserves to be congratulated. It is, without a doubt, a project that must be continued.

José Rodrigues (AEFML Coordinator of the Department of Pedagogy and Medical Education)

In an increasingly global and unpredictable world, where careers alternative to the clinic are increasingly becoming a reality, an initiative such as Job Talks is essential to open up horizons and show medical students that their training path opens them multiple doors and poses multiple challenges.

This edition, with inspiring sessions that shared ideas and projects of great value, was a milestone in this Mentoring 2.0 initiative, which now has everything to grow and reach even more students, not only from FMUL, but also from other colleges in the country.