Child and Adolescent Health PhD mentoring program

Mentoring is integral to the development of PhD students, and for their future post-doctoral life.

PhD students at Melbourne Children’s Campus have consistently expressed the need for mentoring in our annual Child and Adolescent PhD Program student survey.

To address this need, the Child and Adolescent Health PhD Program developed a mentoring program by partnering with Medical Education in the Department of Paediatrics and The Royal Children’s Hospital.

Medical Education had developed a Mentoring Program for JRMOs.

The Child and Adolescent Health PhD Program adapted these materials for our Melbourne Children’s Campus PhD students.

Drawing from corporate and medical literature, and in consultation with the Research Student Association (RSA) at Melbourne Children’s Campus, we designed a model whereby new PhD students self-select a second or third year PhD student mentor.

eLearning resources for both the mentor and mentee were designed around the stages in a mentor/mentee relationship.

The relationship is brokered by a poster introduction of mentors and an informal luncheon during our Academic Skills session.

The roll out of the program will commence at the Melbourne Children’s Campus PhD student Orientation session for new students in April 2019, and the RSA will oversee the implementation.

Online materials are available to share with other University Departments, if requested.

For further information contact Professor Fiona Russell fmruss@unimelb.edu.au.