Embryology Mentor 1

I first heard of the ARCS mentoring scheme via a plea for volunteers back in 2021 and spent a few months thinking about whether this was something I could be involved with. I was worried about the amount of time that it might take, and about whether I had the experience and knowledge to help someone. After all, I didn’t have all the challenges of clinical embryology worked out, by any means! Was I really the right person to support someone else?

After a bit of procrastination, I decided to drop ARCS a line and find out more about what was involved. After an online training session (which was friendly, reassuring and helpful), I was matched with my first mentee. We exchanged emails and arranged a date for our first virtual meeting.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from our first session, but thankfully my mentee had plenty of ideas about how and where they wanted support. By joining the programme, each mentee has already reached out to ARCS for backup and support, often for a specific aspect of their career, so they have already started down the path of self-help. Step one in making a change is often to work out what you want to achieve, and thankfully my mentee had already got to that stage. Far from being scary or intimidating, our first session was mostly a chance to get to know each other, work out who we knew in common (always fun in the small world that is embryology!) and to set goals.

As the meetings went on, sometimes fortnightly, others with a longer gap, we were able to set plans and review how things were going. I was able to act as a sounding-board, and support, and I hope that it was helpful to be able to run situations and questions past someone from a different unit who might have different perspectives.

So many of the challenges that we face are the same across the fertility sector whether you are NHS or private, in a large team or small. Work / life balance, stress, confidence, and dealing with the normal ups and downs of work as a Clinical Scientist are often the same wherever you work. I never felt like I had any Big Answers to give, but just being there to talk things through seemed to help.

I’ve worked with a couple of mentees over the past few years and each time it’s been a good chance to connect with someone new, feel like you are helping and realise that we’re all dealing with similar challenges. I’ve benefitted over the years from lots of support and help from Clinical Scientists who have been there before me, and it felt good to pass it on. The amount of time that it takes is much less than I feared, and honestly no one is there to test you! If you are considering becoming a mentor then I’d definitely recommend reaching out to ARCS and signing up. Good luck!