What Surgeons Can Learn from Greek Myth: A More Effective Mentorship Model

by Taylor Corsi, MD; Elise Presser, MD

In Homer’s The Odyssey, Athena – protectress and goddess of wisdom, practical reason, handicraft, and war strategy – disguises herself as Mentor, a counselor who guides Telemachus in his journey to find his father and restore the kingdom of Ithaca. This story has framed the modern conception of mentorship as an intergenerational relationship between mentor and mentee that benefits the mentee’s growth and accomplishment of stated goals. While the importance of mentorship is clear in the story, the perception of how mentorship is best achieved is worth reinvestigating.

Upon closer inspection of our beloved Greek myth, Athena’s wisdom was provided not merely from her form as Mentor. Importantly, Athena also disguised herself as a shepherd and the daughter of a ship captain. While many scholars have classically attributed Telemachus’ success to Mentor’s guidance alone, Athena advises a diverse network of figures who contribute to his successful resolution. Athena’s guidance for the story’s characters came in many forms, from many sources. In this way, Homer models for us that the successful mentorship model is not linear but instead webbed.

The field of surgery could benefit from this webbed model, particularly for women surgeons. We know that women surgeons value and benefit from mentorship in career development, work-life balance, academic productivity, and academic advancement. While we agree that mentorship is vital in achieving not only gender parity but equity in surgical fields, relying upon a singular, linear mentor-mentee relationship is not always realistic. Many women surgeons lack immediate access to same-gender mentorship. How might we best tackle this? Furthermore, in situations where access to mentors is available but limited, how do we preserve this precious resource, meet the needs of mentees, and avoid undue burden on our mentors? Below is a brief outline for how we might reimagine our path forward.

Where immediate access can exist, take advantage of it.

In the long term, gender parity in surgical specialties overall, and at individual institutions, will improve access. However, in the interim, spaces that bring together women surgeons can create access for mentorship relationships to grow. Go to regional conferences, join your institution’s women in surgery group, and of course, seek out women surgeons at other local institutions. While we work towards ubiquitous access to same-gender mentorship, creating opportunities for ourselves is necessary. As residents, we have found that access can be created in virtual and social media spaces. These virtual spaces are easily accessible, often free, and provide the opportunity to initiate relationships with residents and faculty at institutions across the country that can be developed into a network with time.

Multigenerational webs are better than intergenerational lines: reach forward, reach back, reach across.

The phrase “it takes a village” applies to more than just child rearing. It takes countless hours, interactions, and individuals to forge a surgeon; shouldn’t the same apply to mentorship? Institutional mentorship programming often assigns dyadic relationships, a parent-child model. But the capacity for emotional labor is scarce and variable, creating limits for this traditional mentorship model. We envision mentorship as a web of faculty, leadership, peers, and trainees. Across this web, our efforts, attention, and needs can be shared – a village in which one might rest and rely upon for nurturance and guidance, and in which you provide it in turn. Investing in this connection to your peers, your juniors, and other mentors is exponentially beneficial.

Residents are uniquely positioned to model this method. As residents, we are both mentors and mentees, learning how to connect ourselves and each other to the people and resources we need. For example, while we help medical students navigate their early surgical experience or organize intern bootcamps, we are also learning how to more efficiently sew anastomoses and utilize our institution’s family planning options from our chiefs. Residency also provides built-in access to responsibility sharing – when one resident is on a stretch of 24-hour calls and unable to provide extra support to a junior, they rely on the accessibility of their peers. Learning when to give, take, and share support authentically develops a foundation for the mentorship web we hope to establish.

Impart wisdom to other characters who may contribute to “restoring the kingdom.”

Like Athena, we can impart wisdom to other characters who may play a role in our greater mission. We should emphasize to our male colleagues the impact they may have in establishing connections between women surgeons. It is particularly useful to ask male surgical leaders to model this behavior for all junior faculty, residents, and medical students. Multidisciplinary “women in surgery” events at our institution are generously and notably funded by male and female faculty alike. This creates and reflects our mentorship culture. Building a network is labor-intensive; encouraging the sharing of labor not just amongst our female colleagues, but our male allies can minimize burnout, facilitate awareness of the challenges women surgeons face, and build solution-focused coalitions to address them.

Like Athena, a mentor appears in many forms.

The best mentors are shape shifters. What we need on a trauma rotation might not be what we need during professional development years. What we need as chief residents may not be what we need as junior faculty. Our favorite mentors have been open-minded, accessible, and willing to reassess goals and renegotiate the balance of autonomy and guidance. Furthermore, the most successful mentors connect us to others who can meet a different set of needs at different stages of life.

Whether restoring the kingdom of Ithaca or creating systems of personal and professional support for women in surgery, integrating some or all of the techniques mentioned here may be a good place to start. The webbed model we introduced allows for and encourages shapeshifting and shared responsibility to guide individuals as they develop and change.

Drs. Taylor Corsi and Elise Presser are general surgery residents at Yale School of Medicine.

Taylor Corsi, MD

Elise Presser, MD