Mentoring

Nancy Doyle, Liat Gafni-Lachter, both members of WORK’s Editorial Board and I had a poster presentation at the most recent American Occupational Therapy Association’s INSPIRE conference in San Antonio, Texas, USA. Our poster was titled, Mentoring in Occupational Therapy Education: Inspiring Resilience, Courage, and Compassion. To prepare for the poster presentation we investigated the evidence-based literature and our own research. Our research has shown that supportive mentoring processes: 1. Incorporate not just academic and instrumental support, but also social support, 2. Have a clear structure, 3. Define roles and expectations of each participant, 4. Set individualized goals for each participant, and 5. Provide opportunities for reflection [1, 2]. We concluded that “ \dots  inspiring, providing, and receiving quality mentoring in occupational therapy education builds resilience, courage, and compassion for the learning and professional journeys of these students. Mentoring is an opportunity to not only build academic skills, but also to develop resilience, courage, and compassion for ourselves as professionals. By fostering our own resilience skills, we are better able to sustain our practice and continue to serve clients, students, and others” [3]. Mentoring is both a relationship and process between at least two individuals who share and build knowledge, expertise, and support; and is relevant not only in academia and work, but in life.

I introduce mentoring as my Editor’s Choice article in this issue of WORK: ‘The outcomes of a vocational rehabilitation and mentorship program in unemployed young adults with acquired brain injury’ authored by Markus-Doornbosch et al. Their study investigated a novel vocational rehabilitation program called Brains4You that was mentorship based. According to the authors, “The mentor was a volunteering manager (n = 23) from the commercial or public sector, initially recruited in the social network of rehabilitation professionals involved in the study and later on by ‘the word of mouth’ by the mentors themselves.” These individuals mentored 49 patients (41 completing the follow-up) who were unemployed at the time of their brain injury. The authors concluded that, “A VR program including a mentor may be a promising program for patients who are unemployed at onset of ABI”.

This issue of WORK contains 36 papers; four are COVID-19 related. Work in Social Entrepreneurship (W.I.S.E.), a column authored by Tomeico Faison, provides an interesting interview with Heidi Jannenga which I know you will enjoy. Some other topics in this issue include workplace-based rehabilitation with garment workers, alarm fatigue in nurses working in intensive care units, menopause and work, the effect of traffic noise on cognitive performance, and shift work, among other topics.

Please stay up to date with our Learn at WORK webinars, blogs and news by going to our website at workjournal.org and following us on social media such as Twitter: https://twitter.com/WORK_Journal and Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WORKJournal2016

On June 15, 2022, at 1-2pm EST, Dr. Thomas Tenkate will present his article, Setting priorities: Testing a tool to assess and prioritize workplace chemical hazard. Register at: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/1936437208271158795

On July 27, 2022, at 1-2pm EST, Dr. Khader Almhdawi will present his article, Mental and physical health-related quality of life and their associated factors among students of a comprehensive allied health institution. Register at: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/4954045770999434512

With compassion and appreciation,

Founding Editor, WORK

Occupational therapist & ergonomist

kjacobs@bu.edu

workjournal.org

blogs.bu.edu/kjacobs/