After an extraordinary 2020, with many of us working tirelessly and selflessly on the frontline, I hope that 2021 will restore some normality and give pharmacists the chance to focus on their career development.
This past year, although COVID-19 may have helped us develop in some ways, our progress may have halted in others. Many of us may not have been able to connect new colleagues, for example, so there may have been many missed opportunities for growth. But the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s (RPS) mentoring service is the perfect way to ‘meet’ someone who could help your career flourish.
We launched our mentoring service just over a year ago, in October 2019, and we’ve had great success. So far, we have created over 500 mentoring relationships and almost 1,500 users have registered — that’s a lot of professional development.
As a mentor, you can support mentees in a really meaningful way, while picking up lots of new skills yourself. And, as a mentee, your mentor will help you build your confidence, and help you feel more informed and empowered. You will get much more out of a mentoring relationship than you put in, and that’s why it can be so beneficial to both parties.
This year, we have three main areas of focus: developing quality mentors, ensuring our mentors have the right expertise, and improving your service.
We will launch a series of webinars to help pharmacists get started, enhance and refine their mentoring skills. We’ll also ensure there are enough resources for those who aren’t sure about what mentoring entails, and there’ll be guidance on how to mentor successfully.
We will make sure we have mentors in specialist areas, so that mentees feel well supported in the niche they want to develop in.
We want to keep improving, so we will continue to listen carefully to your feedback on the service, and throughout the year we’ll be launching new platform developments to make navigating the service as easy as possible.
Excitingly, we’ve set up a mentoring development group, made up of mentors and mentees using our service, who will help us make sure that our service is just right for all pharmacists.
Take advantage of the mentoring service today, which is included with membership to the RPS. Find out more at: https://rpharms.onpld.com/
If you have any questions about the service, get in touch at: support@rpharms.com
Kina Vyas, mentoring lead and professional development pharmacist, Royal Pharmaceutical Society
