Could you be a CI Mentor?
The role of the CI Mentor
The Mentor is a role taken on by an experienced CI clinician who works within a CI team. Their role is to support the Champions, who will each support their own team. The Champions and Mentor form a link between implant and referral services. Support by the Mentors can be achieved by (but not limited to) the following activities:
1. Sharing of specific contact details: name, email, phone number and working hours.
2. Timely and detailed responses to Champions emails, so this advice can support referral and be shared with the referring team to improve knowledge and promote understanding of candidacy.
3. Availability to discuss cases by phone, as needed.
4. A willingness to train, support and empower Champions and their teams to understand referral candidacy. This may include:
a. Informal meetings/training/support
b. Sharing of information, e.g. local leaflets, local audits, service reviews, case studies.
c. Sharing national and international evidence of new developments in CI (especially around referral and candidacy).
d. Ensuring referring clinicians have the opportunity to meet and talk to implant users, so they can fully understand what an implant can provide (e.g., supporting CI users to return to their original referring service to share their experiences and raise awareness among staff).
e. Inviting Champions to visit the CI team to observe a CI assessment clinic.
f. Supporting services to set-up aided AB word testing
5. Audit referrals so that information on referral-quality and outcomes can be fed back to the referring teams.
6. Discuss and advise on the audit results shared by Champions, supporting the BCIG Referral report in Auditbase, if appropriate.
It is expected this role would require on average two hours of admin per week. This protected time should be agreed with the Mentor’s manager before the role is agreed.
Share details of the role with your manager, download the expectations here. To express interest in becoming a CI Mentor, please email admin@baaudiology.org
Activities you can do in your 2 hour protected CI Mentor time
Create and maintain a list of contact details for all champions of your referral sites
- Build relationships with individual Champions
- Contact managers of departments without a named champion requesting a champion.
- Create a contact list accessible to your department in the event of your absence.
Encourage champions to arrange local manufacturer training
- Provide a list of all 3 manufacturers’ contact details
- Include training on crystal reports
Cleanse referral data ensuring all names and department titles are uniform
- Label all referrals from ‘engaged champion sites’
- Use pivot tables to monitor trends in the data
Offer all champions dates to observe MDT/clinic/SLT/TOD/ENT
- Include face to face catch up time with mentor
- Discuss local department-specific challenges and the local department’s referral data
Workshops
- Template available as a guide
- Record the session and review – group comments into themes
- Gather feedback