CONNECT members have a wealth of experience and expertise and many are willing to provide mentorship to others, including peer-to-peer mentorship. Mentorship is not necessarily limited to 1-1 meetings but could also include undertaking a scholarly visit, internship or engaging in a research project as a means to gaining exposure and building networks with international researchers and their teams.
CONNECT members willing to provide mentorship opportunities highlight this within their CONNECT profile. All CONNECT member profiles can be found on: https://www.qmul.ac.uk/whri/research/connect/member-profile/
CONNECT is not currently in a position to fund visits and scholarly exchange opportunities. However, if visits cannot be funded through existing grants/fellowships at the mentee’s organisation, there are some other potential sources of funding that could be explored:
Rosalie Magboo’s mentorship experience – July 3-8, 2022
Rosalie Magboo from St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, United Kingdom visited Canada last summer for her travelling fellowship hosted by Professor Suzanne Fredericks, co-founder of CONNECT. The aim of the fellowship was to establish collaboration with international centres and universities to further develop Rosalie’s PhD programme of work, which focuses on the health-related quality of life and psychosocial effects of the diagnosis and surgical interventions for aortovascular manifestations in Marfan syndrome (MFS) patients.
Through the fellowship, she had the opportunity to visit Toronto General Hospital to benchmark practice on the care of MFS patients undergoing aortovascular surgery. She also met several nursing experts in cardiac surgery and congenital heart disease and was able to build networks for potential collaborative works from the Toronto Metropolitan University, Brock University in Niagara and Canadian Council of Cardiovascular Nurses (CCCN) as well as members of various patients’ organisations including the Aortic Dissection Canada and Genetic Aortic Disorders Association (GADA) Canada.
One of the immediate projects is the development of a psychosocial intervention based on the outcome of her study. This will potentially open up opportunities for other nurses to embark on a PhD study in both countries and encouraged them to pursue a clinical academic career.
Rosalie said, “The fellowship offered a truly exciting opportunity. I was fortunate to be mentored by clinical and academic experts in the field and was able to collaborate with high-calibre researchers to develop my post-doctoral work.”
Suzanne said, “Having the opportunity to spend time with Rosalie was a wonderful experience. Together we were able to discuss strategies that will build on and support existing and future research projects. Through our discussions, I was able to provide objective guidance and feedback based on my personal experiences, facilitate reflective thinking, and encourage Rosalie to think about different ways to pursue her own personal growth and learning”.