Question
Why is mentorship crucial when facing team rejection?
Answer
My mentor was the one who accepted me into the respiratory program. We have a solid mentor-mentee relationship. Ultimately, I did not want to let her down. I took her advice and returned to work with this new thought that I would have a piece of humble pie. I started to go to every trauma team, and for every rapid response, I was there. As I said, they were a fantastic team. They did not need me, but I went anyway. Do you need help? They would say, "Nope." Then I would hand them the scissors, the ET tube, and the pulse ox. I would do little things like that. They would snatch things out of my hands. They gave me that humble pie dry. They did not make it easy for me. Eventually, they started to open up to me. They would be like, "Linda, come here." They would have the endotracheal scope pulled up, and they would say, "Linda, pass me the ET tube, push the ET tube through here, you see the vocal cords?" I would push it through, and it was everything. It helped me so much. Now I was starting to learn.
They opened up to me. They invited me to lunch. I will not lie; it was awkwardly uncomfortable at first. I was not invited to their birthday parties, or their kids' parties, or anything like that, but they were starting to open up to me. Ultimately, when I decided to go back to school to get my Master's degree in public health. I had to leave them. The leader of that group told me, "Linda, at the end of the day, you were always there." I said, "Yes." He said, "We will miss you." He hugged me. I could not believe it. But at the end of the day, it is a fact. They could not deny it. I was always there. Understand this is my humble pie story.
This Ask the Expert is an edited excerpt from the course, The Power of You: Unlocking Purpose Within Your Career, presented by Linda Nozart, MPH, BSRT, RRT, AE-C.
