Speed to Succeed

In its first ever Speed Mentoring event, dental charity Heart Your Smile aimed to match up aspiring young professionals with the mentor of their choice.

On Wednesday, September 18^th, at a West End venue, Heart Your Smile Trustees and members gathered with a group of eight experienced professional mentors and coaches, and six young professionals and undergraduates.

They were on a mission to see how Speed Mentoring could aid aspiring healthcare colleagues by matching them with an experienced mentor of their choice.

Fiona Ellwood has been instrumental in supporting the Heart your Smile mentoring programme and conceiving the Speed Mentoring model for Heart Your Smile. Fiona is president elect and soon to be president of The British Association of Dental Nursing. Fiona is a leading dental educator and lecturer in mentoring, for the Faculty of General Dental Practice and was kind enough to give a brief introduction to the group before we started.

Each mentee had just four minutes to rate their opposite number for compatibility and expertise in helping them achieve their chosen goals. Each mentor undertook a similar rating, to evaluate how well they felt they could support the mentee.