WITHIN THE DEAKIN COMMUNITY
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FACULTY OF HEALTH PEER MENTOR
Deakin University provides an opportunity for experienced current students to engage in a mentor program.
This initiative aims to assist new students at Deakin to navigate essential resources and aids in transitioning
to university life. At my time at Deakin, I first became a Faculty of Health Peer Mentor in 2023. Having just
completed my first two years at Deakin, I finally began to feel I had the basics of university life and course
-related knowledge to share. However, the most important reason I joined the Health Peer Mentor team
was to help individuals who may be in a similar position that I was. At the beginning of my degree as a
student directly from high school and an individual who had moved away from home for my studies, I
found the first weeks and even months of transitioning to university life particularly challenging.
I wanted to empower other students, provide authentic leadership through telling my journey,
provide empathy to those who may be struggling and further develop my communication skills. This was
my first individual leadership role at the university and I recall feeling quite nervous as I felt I had not
engaged in such a leadership role since high school. However, I was determined to push myself out of my
comfort zone with the support of my personal development activities that I had engaged with in the
VCPEP that instilled me with a sense of confidence.
Throughout the Peer Mentor Program I engaged in the Faculty of Health Peer Mentor Training Program and completed the associated online modules of the Students Helping Students. In this training process I was involved in sharing my previous mentoring experiences to the mentor group, learning and hearing others mentoring experiences as well as familiarizing myself with useful resources such as the mentoring handbook and Microsoft Teams site. Upon reflection of my involvement in these training processes ,I am now able to appreciate the importance of accountability in a leader. Here, I realized that I was initially unfamiliar with some of the resources required such as Microsoft Teams and the information handbook. Although I felt embarrassed at the time to ask questions on how to use resources such as Microsoft Teams, I am now able to reflect on how such training enabled me to acknowledge the importance of accountability of my weaknesses to ensure I can provide adequate leadership to my mentees.
Following my successful completion of the training day and associated modules I began to prepare for my first meeting with my mentees. As part of my mentoring duties I was responsible for the organisation of weekly meetings which included communicating to my mentees via online platforms such as outlook and group chats, organizing content to present, research and organizing a location and summary pages of the content delivered. Through my involvement in such processes, I was able to reflect on this and comprehend the importance of time management and adaptability. In preparation for my first few meetings, I found that formulating information to present was quite time consuming. However, as I became more familiar with how I could use the handbook to my advantage and Microsoft Teams I was able to improve my efficiency and overall time management skills.
One example in my time as a first-time Peer Mentor was my first meeting in which I attempted to do an ice-breaker. I found that not many students wanted to engage and thus I ended up omitting the ice-breaker in the first week. Upon reflection of this experience I realised that perhaps a different communication style would be better suited to my mentee group.
As such, the following week I created a power-point slide dedicated to an ice- breaker with the questions on the screen and shared my own responses to the ice-breaker first which resulted in a much more successful outcome. I found experiences such as this although difficult in the moment, demonstrate my adaptability and problem solving skills which I highly value in a leader as this highlights resilience and capacity to confront unpredictable situations.
Another element of leadership that I believe the Peer Mentor Program helped me illustrate was my communication skills. As part of this program I presented a weekly PowerPoint to my mentees in which I shared verbal information. Upon reflection of my communication skills in the early weeks of the program I was able to realize that I was more reliant on using notes and not focused on other elements of oral communication such as my tone of voice. However, now at the conclusion of my mentoring experience I have noticed that I have become less reliant on prompts and feel more confident in monitoring my tone of voice. During my role as a Health Peer Mentor, I provided my mentees with written communication mediums including summary emails/ content and reminder emails. I am now able to recognize how such written components contributed to my ability to structure ideas and arguments appropriately on slides and emails, and assisted in my capacity to determine what appropriate levels of detail in a document are for my mentees. This also included determining what type of information and communication methods would best be suited to my mentees communication styles as I found this varied between mentee groups. For example, I was able to adopt non-verbal mediums of communication such as photos or props, for instance I brought in my radiographic markers and recommended textbooks. When reflecting on this strategy and on feedback from my mentees I am able to recognize my strong adaptability and interpersonal skills
and will aim to incorporate the use of props/ images in future mentoring roles.
2024 HEALTH PEER MENTOR
Through the program's weekly reflections and personal reflection I was able to realise the great amount of personal development I had undergone and the rewarding sensation that I experienced. This prompted me to apply to be a Health Peer Mentor in 2024. As this was my second time mentoring, I was able to reflect on my previous experience as a mentor and adopt strategies such as using non-verbal communication methods including pictures and physical props. Upon reflection of this, I am now able to understand the importance of reflection on my past experience as a mentor and how this helped me identify personal weakness and those strategies that were previously most effective.
For example, reflecting on my previous Peer Mentor experience I was able to acknowledge that an online group chat such as Facebook was preferred by mentees and using applications such a poll to choose meeting times was highly efficient. As such, by implementing these strategies again and seeking feedback following my first peer mentor role, I was able to improve my ability to plan, organize, implement and evaluate actions that lead to positive outcomes for my mentee group.
Another leadership skill that I was able to demonstrate by being a mentor was my ability to seek feedback which I believe is critical in a leader as I believe this builds trust, contributes to self – awareness and collaboration skills. In my mentor sessions at the conclusion of each session I provided my mentees opportunities to provide feedback, any areas they wanted to explore further and encouraged them to email me with any questions or concerns. At the conclusion of my peer mentoring I also created a google form that my mentees were asked to voluntarily participate in. Upon reflection of my inclusion of this element, I am able to acknowledge the power of receiving feedback in improving my confidence as a leader and ensuring that I am meeting the needs of my mentees. The feedback ensured I was focusing on elements my mentees had not received much information on rather than repeating known knowledge. Overall, by seeking feedback I believe I was able to improve my self-awareness and my mentees self-awareness as they were able to propose areas they felt they were lacking information in. In conclusion, I found my time as a mentor to be a very rewarding experience as I was able to portrayed my leadership skills in leading a diverse group and also visualise the personal and social impacts of my leadership.​​
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FEEDBACK FROM MENTEES
​​​ABOUT THE TEDDY BEAR HOSPITAL
The Deakin Teddy Bear Hospital is a student lead initiative run by student volunteers that aims to familiarize and de-stigmatize healthcare settings for children. As a member of the Teddy Bear Hospital I engaged in multiple training nights that focused on how to communicate with the paediatric community and learning how to run and lead school visit stations. Upon reflection of my involvement in these voluntary training nights, I am able now able to recognize how such programs have benefited my personal development and awareness. Here, I was able to explore my areas of weakness such as non-verbal communication with paediatrics including my ability to be more aware of my facial expressions, use of diagrams and models as well as my body language; for instance ensuring my eye level is at the same of the child's. I was able to identify such weaknesses through self-reflection and seeking feedback from other members in our mock interactions. Following my successful completion of such training programs I was able to engage with the paediatric community to action my learning and leadership.
TEDDY BEAR HOSPITAL SCHOOL VISITS
As part of the Teddy Bear Hospital I engaged in school visits in the Geelong area such as visits to the East Geelong Primary School and Newtown Primary School. During these visits I was responsible for running a healthcare station which varied between visits. One station I was the team leader of was the Medical Imaging station. As an individual currently studying my Bachelor of Medical Imaging this was an exciting opportunity to engage with the paediatric population. Here, I was able to encourage the children to bring a teddy along that could undergo an ‘x-ray', show them images of x-rays and explain what x-rays are. Upon reflection of my interactions in this event, I was able to recognize the importance of practicing my paediatric specific communication skills as I was able to establish that this varied heavily compared to the adult population that I was more familiar with. Here, I demonstrated my leadership skills of communication by altering my language choices. For example, I adopted simple language, avoided acronyms, spoke at a slower pace and asked the children questions to keep them engaged.
This leadership experience also enabled me to highlight my adaptability skills. In this event I had formulated key points to cover when the children came to my station and a systematic flow so that each child had an opportunity to use the equipment on their teddy. However, this was not the case with each group as some groups had children who were reserved or highly energetic compared to other children. As such, I was required to assess the group, recognize those groups that may be more challenging to engage with and alter my communication style from my original plans. Upon reflection of this experience, I am now able to recognize that my ability to be open-minded and adaptability skills are two leadership elements that I portrayed in these paediatric environments.
Overall, reflecting on my leadership roles in school visits as part of the Teddy Bear Hospital, by sharing my discipline knowledge to primary school students I believe I was able to positively influence paediatric communities in relation to their knowledge of health resources and destigmatizing health care settings for children. I also believe that this leadership experience allowed me to prove my ability to lead diverse groups as I was able to lead and educate the paediatric demographic as opposed to the adult population I am familiar with. Overall, my involvement with this initiative also enabled me to consolidate my passion towards paediatric health as this is an area that motivates and excites me.