The Alumni Mentorship Programme
Where healthcare students and young graduates - doctors, dentists, pharmacists, nurses and allied health - meet the senior members of the Association, across every specialty, every hospital cluster and private practice. We make the introductions. What follows is between you.
Mentorship that starts as a conversation
Every medical, dental, pharmacy and nursing school in Singapore mentors its own undergraduates, and every hospital cluster mentors within its residency programmes. Nobody mentors the years in between - the house officer choosing a specialty, the medical officer building a residency portfolio, the young dentist deciding on a specialist track, the pre-registration pharmacist, the nurse considering advanced practice. And nobody gives a junior a way to find a research supervisor, or a senior from another hospital or from private practice to ask what a career really looks like.
The Association has 1,000 senior clinicians on its roll and a building 300 metres from the wards. This programme puts them in the same room as the people coming up behind them - at mentor evenings, specialty suppers, talks and a project fair - and then gets out of the way. We do not assign mentors or fix ratios. A mentor decides whom to take on and how much to give; a junior decides whom to approach and what to ask. The best mentorships we know of began with a conversation over dinner, not a form.
It is not new to us. In 2012 the Association's Clinical Specialty Interest Group brought fourteen professors and department heads together with students in fourteen specialties, launched by the Minister for Health. This programme carries that idea to every healthcare profession, and past graduation into the years when the decisions are made.
What we host, and what we leave to you
The social heart of it
- Suppers and drinks at 2 College Road, by specialty or by profession, where mentors and juniors meet without an agenda.
- Hosted by the Association; the conversation is yours.
- Small by design. A mentor who meets three people they like over supper has done more than a roster ever will.
"The life of a specialist, and how to get in"
- Saturday talks in the Theatrette, streamed for those on call.
- What the specialty is really like, what the training takes, how selection works.
- Speed-mentoring nights: several mentors, ten minutes each, then supper on the pool deck.
- Open to students and to graduates who have not yet joined.
Projects, when a mentor has one
- Senior members with a hospital or university appointment may post a project they want help with.
- Members in private practice or retired may offer to coach the question, the writing and the presentation.
- Juniors apply in the app; the supervisor chooses whom to take.
- A project fair each year, and a prize for the best junior-authored paper, presented at the reunion.
Twenty minutes with the right person
- Mentors who wish to may post a slot or two in the app.
- Book one for a one-off question: an interview next week, a job offer, a practice lease.
- Entirely at the mentor's discretion, and no matching.
Face to face, three times a year
- October - the season opener: mentors introduced, everyone in one room.
- April - the project fair in the Theatrette.
- The reunion informal night on the pool deck - mentors thanked, the paper prize presented.
Assign, allocate or promise
- We do not match you to a mentor, and we do not promise one to everyone. Mentors are volunteers with clinics to run.
- We do not set ratios or meeting quotas. How often you meet, and about what, is between you.
- We host the evenings, keep the mentor list, and hold the door open. A small sub-committee and the membership app do the rest.
Students, graduates and mentors
Free, from any healthcare school
Medical, dental, pharmacy, nursing and allied health students at NUS, NTU and Duke-NUS join the Student Chapter free and get a student profile in the app.
- Mentor talks, speed-mentoring nights and the project fair
- Mentor evenings in your clinical years, through the Student Chapter
- The chance to meet, before you graduate, the people you will want to know after
Membership, $200 a year
House officers, medical and dental officers, residents, pre-registration and early-career pharmacists, nurses and allied health professionals - the years when the decisions are made.
- Every mentor evening and specialty supper
- The mentor list and the research register in the app
- Office hours, where a mentor offers them
- The season opener, the project fair and the reunion
- And everything membership carries: free parking at 2 College Road, the pool, the members' lounge, CME
As much or as little as you choose
Consultants, specialists, private practitioners, senior dentists, pharmacists, nurses and allied health leaders - members of the Association, and colleagues invited to serve who are not yet members.
- Come to a mentor evening. Whom you take on afterwards, and how, is yours to decide
- Give a talk, post a project, or offer an office-hours slot if you wish - none is required
- Colleagues invited as mentors receive two years' membership in service of the programme
Where we are recruiting mentors
Every healthcare profession is represented. If your specialty or career path is not listed, tell us - the list follows the people who volunteer.
Medicine
- Cardiology
- Endocrinology
- Gastroenterology
- Geriatric Medicine
- Haematology
- Infectious Diseases
- Internal Medicine
- Medical Oncology
- Neurology
- Palliative Medicine
- Rehabilitation Medicine
- Renal Medicine
- Respiratory Medicine
- Rheumatology
- Intensive Care Medicine
Surgery
- General Surgery
- Colorectal Surgery
- Cardiothoracic Surgery
- Hand Surgery
- Neurosurgery
- Orthopaedic Surgery
- Paediatric Surgery
- Plastic Surgery
- Urology
- Otorhinolaryngology (ENT)
- Ophthalmology
Other medical specialties
- Anaesthesiology
- Dermatology
- Diagnostic Radiology
- Emergency Medicine
- Family Medicine
- Neonatology
- Nuclear Medicine
- Obstetrics & Gynaecology
- Occupational Medicine
- Paediatric Medicine
- Pathology
- Psychiatry
- Public Health
- Radiation Oncology
- Sports Medicine
- Aviation Medicine
Dentistry
- Endodontics
- Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery
- Orthodontics
- Paediatric Dentistry
- Periodontics
- Prosthodontics
- Dental Public Health
- General dental practice and practice ownership
Pharmacy
- Hospital clinical pharmacy - oncology, infectious diseases, critical care, geriatrics, psychiatry, paediatrics
- Community pharmacy and ownership
- Industry, medical affairs and regulatory
- Pharmacy leadership and informatics
Nursing
- Advanced Practice Nursing - acute care
- Advanced Practice Nursing - mental health
- Advanced Practice Nursing - community
- Nursing leadership and education
- Nursing research
Allied health
- Physiotherapy
- Occupational therapy
- Speech therapy
- Dietetics
- Radiography
- Clinical psychology
- Medical social work
- Podiatry
Career paths
- Private practice - setting up, leases, groups, exits
- Aesthetic and lifestyle medicine
- Hospital leadership and medical administration
- MOH, policy and public service
- Academia and the clinician-scientist track
- Research methods and publishing
- MedTech, start-ups and entrepreneurship
- Artificial intelligence and digital health
- Pharma and device industry medical affairs
- Health insurance and managed care
- Medico-legal practice and expert work
- Overseas training and exams - MRCP, MRCS, FRACP, FRCS, USMLE
- SAF and military medicine
- Global health and mission work
- Locum, portfolio and part-time careers
- Women in surgery and leadership
The first season
Mentors invited across every specialty. Mentor talks begin on the Saturday CME calendar.
First speed-mentoring night on the pool deck, ahead of the residency application window.
Student profiles open at the campus drives. First project fair in the Theatrette; mentors who have a project post it.
Mentor evenings begin - by specialty and by profession - at 2 College Road.
The season opener: mentors introduced, everyone in one room.
Second project fair; mentors thanked and the first paper prize presented at the reunion; dental, pharmacy and nursing evenings added.
Mentor with us, or ask to be mentored
Tell us who you are and where you can help. The Mentorship Sub-Committee will be in touch. If you were invited by a member of the committee, say who.
"A mentoring programme bringing the senior alumni members together with the medical students."How the Association described its Clinical Specialty Interest Group in 2013