As former co-chair of AMDA's now defunct Mentorship Program, I am frequently reminded of mentoring situations. Ironically, a recent display ad in The New York Times touched a nerve, evoking a mentoring-related memory almost forty years old.

The ad, from a company called UNTUCKit, featured a line drawing of a man's long-sleeved, button-down shirt, designed to  be worn untucked, but otherwise quite similar to the ones worn by my husband as a medical student in 1976.

To be quite honest, transitioning from a hippie pre-med to a "professional-looking" physician-in-training in the 70's took some work. My husband has never been particularly fashion forward or invited to model for the cover of GQ magazine, but has always been neat, clean and presentable.

His first experience with professional attire began as a third year medical student, when he was required to wear a dress shirt and tie on rounds. For him, learning to tie a Windsor knot was almost as hard as learning to tie sutures. However,despite his steep learning curve involving fashion sense, he was an excellent and incredibly bright medical student, inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA) honor society in his junior year and a graduate in the top five percent of his Georgetown medical school class. 

Having had an excellent experience, good relationships and honors grades on a subspecialty rotation, he requested and received a letter of recommendation from his supervisor to be used in his residency match application. However, shortly before being sent to the Match Program, he received a call from the department secretary, indicating a "slight problem" with the letter. She described the letter as glowing and supportive, but was concerned about the last line, which read:

"Mr. Bach is an excellent student. Hard working, responsible, reliable and knowledgeable. However, his shirt tail is always untucked, which is not an admirable trait for a house officer."

Stunned by this comment, which had never been discussed during the rotation, modifications were made, the packet was sent, and he was accepted for residency by his top program choice.

Fast forward 38 years ... upon showing him the UNTUCKit ad, I asked if this conjured up any memories from medical school. His response... "Yes... It reminds me of that jerk Dr. X .. I've thought of him every single day since then as I tuck in my shirt to go to work!"

Thus, mentorship has many implications and generates lasting memories, both good and bad. 

CALTCM members .. We'd love to hear about YOUR mentoring memories! Please share them with us at [email protected].

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