Background and Purpose

In September, 1995 a report from the PHS Mentoring Committee was approved by the Acting Surgeon General. The Committee recommended that a two tiered program be developed, composed of sponsorship and mentorship tracks. The basic tenet of the first tier, the sponsorship program, is to provide information to newly commissioned officers and transferring officers about the PHS agency's mission and program to which they have been assigned, and to familiarize them with the local characteristics of their new duty station. The agency liaisons will initiate the match, and contact between the two officers should occur not later than 48 hours after the new or transferring officer reports to duty. Sponsors do not have to be in the same professional category or at a higher rank than the officer being sponsored. The sponsor and the new officer will be matched organizationally as closely as possible. Sponsorship is mandatory in the sense that each officer assigned to a new duty station will be referred to and contacted by a sponsor already stationed at that site.

The purpose of the second tier, the mentorship program is to assist and advise junior officers in their professional growth in keeping with the mission of the PHS and the Commissioned Corps. While each individual officer is ultimately responsible for his/her career development,a category-specific mentorship program represents an important resource to aid officers in their career progression.

The purpose of the Dietitian/Nutritionist Mentor Program is to provide junior officers with guidance on category specific career and professional development issues by senior officers.

Responsibilities in the Mentoring Relationship

Responsibilities of Mentors

1. Serve as a role model by sharing personal experiences
2. Be a resource person by providing information on the discipline and on various professional organizations (Be open and understanding)
3. Help to identify options for promoting goals and solving specific problems
4. Offer guidance, but allow the protege to make the final decision
5. Orient the protege to the spoken and unspoken rules of the organization
6. Be an advocate and acknowledge achievements
7. Help set realistic goals and provide encouragement
8. Share positive reactions and offer constructive criticism
9. Provide perspective by helping the protege to see the big picture, and to assist inbalancing issues.

Responsibilities of Proteges

1. Initiate by actively seeking out the mentor's advice
2. Be honest and open, share your self-assessment of career development needs and personal career goals,
3. Consider all options
4. Take full advantage of the services and assistance offered, make decisions based on all information gathered, follow through on suggestions that make sense.

Ten Commandments for a Successful Mentoring Relationship

1. Be Proactive - don't wait for your mentor or protege to contact you
2. Negotiate a commitment - agree to have regular contact at pre-defined intervals
3. Establish rapport - learn as much as you can about one another
4. Be confident - each of you has something important to offer the other
5. Be enthusiastic - demonstrate your interest in the mentoring relationship
6. Communicate - share your knowledge and experience openly
7. Be a good listener - hear what your mentor or protege is saying to you
8. Be responsive - act upon what you have learned
9. Be accessible - have an open-door or open-phone policy
10. Take responsibility - it takes two to have a successful mentoring relationship

Benefits of the Mentoring Relationship

This program is a resource for the new officer, while it offers senior officers an opportunity to share their experience and perspective with someone who could greatly benefit from them. It should be a rewarding experience for both officers.

Benefits to Mentors include the satisfaction of helping a young officer define and attain goals by identifying options and planning strategies, improvement in interpersonal communication,motivation and counselling and other management skills, and the impetus to reflect on one's own goals and performance.

Benefits to Proteges include obtaining guidance in defining and achieving goals, connecting inter personally with a caring, encouraging senior advisor, receiving constructive feedback and acquiring an objective and credible source of information.

Implementation and Management

The Dietitian/Nutritionist Chief Professional Officer (CPO) is the director of the Mentoring Program. The Program will be managed through the efforts of the Dietitian/Nutritionist Professional Advisory Committee (PAC).

Selection Process

Protege: A list of new officers is periodically provided to CPO's by the Division of Commissioned Personnel. At each PAC meeting, the CPO will update the PAC if any new officers have been commissioned in the category. All new commissioned officers in this category will be contacted.

Mentor: Experienced 04 officers and all 05 and 06 officers should be considered as potential mentors. Recruitment for mentors will be publicized through the PAC newsletter and the Commissioned Corps Bulletin with emphasis placed on this being a voluntarily assumed responsibility. Interested officers will be requested to submit their resume and a brief information summary including their goals, billet title, duty station, primary job activity, previous commissioned corps assignments and training to facilitate matching with a new officer.

Matching Process: The match will be made manually by the PAC members taking into consideration agency, the information summary provided by the potential mentor and geographic location. Every new commissioned officer in the Dietitian/Nutritionist category will be made aware that a mentor is available to them. (By letter or a telephone call by the Mentor) Contact will be made within the first three months of the officer's commissioning as the PAC meets on a quarterly basis.

Frequency of Contacts and Duration

After a match, the PAC's involvement in the mentor/protege relationship becomes minimal,and the mentor and protege must be proactive in establishing and maintaining the relationship. Frequent contact is essential for establishing initial rapport and keeping the lines of communication open. The duration of the mentoring relationship will be determined by the mentor and the protege.

Guidelines for Mentors

Training for mentors will be consistent with the recommendations made in the report of the Officer Enhancement Committee. The mentorship program will create a pool of mentors with leadership skills in the proper wearing of the uniform, military courtesy and protocol as described in the Officer Enhancement Committee Report.

Evaluation of Program

Evaluation is critical to the success of the mentoring program. To ensure that the relationship remains functional and effective, follow-up with mentors and proteges needs to be conducted by the PAC. The PAC will establish criteria and evaluate the program to assess whether the goals of the program are being met.

Sample Preceptor Letter

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Last updated on February 2006