Evaluation of the existing undergraduate mentorship program

INTRODUCTION

The word “mentor” comes from the Greek tale “Odyssey,” in which Odysseus entrusts his devoted friend “Mentor” responsibility of his son’s education before setting out on the Trojan War.^[1] In India, it dates back to the era of the “Gurukuls” wherein the students were placed under the tutelage of a “Guru,” who over many years fostered and directed their overall, professional, and personal development.^[2] As a medical student faces various challenges, including overwhelming curriculum, challenges in adapting to a new environment, loneliness, and other stressors, they need academic as well psychological support and guidance. One of the engaging, ongoing methods to identify a student’s strengths and weaknesses and offer potential solutions is through a mentoring relationship. In mentorship , a faculty member serving as a mentor, not only provides academic and professional guidance; but also emotional and psychosocial support to the mentee and aims at fostering and providing opportunities for holistic and professional development of the mentee. It furthermore involves role modeling.^[3] With mentorship playing such a significant role, we need tools to evaluate the quality of the mentorship experience in a medical college. Unfortunately, there are not sufficient valid metrics for evaluating the quality of mentorship in relation to medical student experiences.^[4] Furthermore, there exists a deficit in the Indian medical education system in the form of inadequate research, knowledge, attitude, and practice of mentorship.^[5] Therefore, the evaluation of an existing mentoring program presumes relevance to determine all the factors that could jeopardize the mentoring relationship as well as the program’s benefits and limitations, especially in the Indian context.^[6] Although we have an ongoing mentorship program at our institute, it has never been evaluated yet in terms of perception of mentors and mentees toward the mentorship program. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the mentorship program using pre-validated post-mentoring questionnaire for mentors and mentees.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

RESULTS

A summary of the survey results are presented in Tables 1 and 2. The survey data highlight a generally a positive perception of the mentor-mentee program, although some areas require attention. The majority of respondents were satisfied with the mentor-mentee allotment procedure, with 34 (57%) either strongly agreeing or agreeing. Opinions on the transparency of the process were divided, with 26 (43%) agreeing and 18 (30%) neutral. The majority of mentees (54%) agreed that mentors met them on a frequent basis, whereas 24 (41%) disagreed or strongly disagreed. Mentors were typically regarded as approachable, with 37 (62%) agreeing or strongly agreeing. Mentorship helped mentees adjust to unfamiliar environment, as indicated by the fact that 33 (55%) mentees agreed. As per survey, 30 (49%) believed that their mentors offered emotional support when they were upset. Mentors helped 38 (64%) students to gain self-confidence and relieved stress for 30 mentees (49%), while 22 (36%) were ambivalent or disagreed. As per survey, 36 (61%) mentees believed that their mentors encouraged them to improve academically and provided guidance in academic matters. Only 19 (32%) agreed on the introduction to research during mentorship, indicating a weakness. Mentorship helped that only 24 (39% of respondents) develop career goals. While 29 (48%) believed that their mentors were motivating, 25 (41%) were neutral or disagreed. Mentors were considered as assets by 36 individuals (61%) and 29 (48%) looked up to them as role models.

Table 2 depicts the responses from the mentors toward mentorship. Twenty-one out of 25 mentors (84%) are satisfied with the mentee allocation method and 21 (84%) are aware of their academic responsibilities. Twenty-two (88%) recognized an increase in awareness of students’ challenges during mentorship and 19 (76%) agreed that their communication skills have improved. All of the mentors agreed that mentorship helped in building meaningful relationship with the students and 22 mentors (88%) wanted to continue as mentors for future batches.

DISCUSSION

The present study has provided the researcher with an opportunity to analyze the perception of mentees and mentors toward the mentorship program using both survey responses [Tables 1 and 2]. In our study, we included the current batch of interns, whereas most of the Indian studies have data pertaining to the perception of 1^st year MBBS students as mentees.^[7,8] The investigator feels that it is more appropriate for interns to give their opinion about the program as they have been under mentorship since past 5 years as compared to a 1^st year medical student who just joined a medical college, as it will better reveal both short and long-term impact of mentorship.^[1] The majority of mentees in our study are satisfied with the mentor-mentee allotment procedure, with 34 (57%) either strongly agreeing or agreeing. Opinions on the transparency of the process are divided, with 26 (43%) agreeing and 18 (30%) neutral. Vast majority (84%) of mentors were satisfied with the allotment procedure. At our institution, mentor-mentee allotment is done randomly. According to a novel paper published by Singh and Modi, one of the mentor’s most important qualities is approachability.^[2] As per our survey results, 62% mentees thought that their mentors were approachable. Active listening by mentors was rated positively by 66% of the mentees. While both groups need good listening skills, it is indispensable for the mentor as it demonstrates true concern and genuine interest of the mentor. The mentors also play a crucial role as providers of psychosocial support and guidance. As per survey results, 64% of mentees felt a boost in their confidence after interacting with their mentors, 49% of students believed that their mentors offered emotional support and helped in reducing their stress and anxiety. These results were consistent with a study by Sparshadeep et al. in which most students expressed having a mentor is beneficial for their emotional and personal growth.^[8] As per survey, 84% mentors agreed that they were aware of their academic responsibilities toward their mentees. Mentorship was perceived as beneficial for academic improvement by 61% of mentees. Role modeling is the most outstanding and aspired quality in a mentor. Role models are “individuals admired for their ways of being and acting as professionals.”^[9] They are a real inspiration and teach by example and help in nurturing and influence the development of a student into a professional. Professionalism is primarily covered in the “hidden curriculum” and is not necessarily a formal component of the medical curriculum. Unintended lessons that are picked up but not explicitly taught make up the hidden curriculum. In this sense, lessons in professionalism are acquired through clinical teacher observation, upward networking, and the socialization of the profession.^[1] According to a study, while mentors influence students’ journey toward their goals, role models influence who they aspire to be.^[10] As per survey results, mentors were considered as an asset by 61% mentees while 48% of them look up to them as their role models which reinforce the importance and necessity of a mentor who is also a role model for the professional and holistic development of the mentee at a medical school, which is well supported by various studies.^[1,2,8]

As per survey, 88% mentors recognized an increase in awareness of students’ challenges and 76% of them believed that their communication skills have improved. Bhatia et al. reported similar results, stating that mentors were able to empathize with students better after learning about their challenges.^[11]

Only 54% of the mentors met the mentees on a regular basis. Similar findings were also reported in the previous studies as one of the hindering factors for the success of mentorship program.^[8,12] Infrequent mentoring sessions were identified as one of the major challenges in our mentorship program. The mentors also help in the academic and professional growth of the mentees. A major obstacle hindering career advancement in medicine is lack of mentoring.^[13] Having a mentor increases the odds of engaging in research during medical school and is associated with junior academic physicians’ higher research production.^[10,14] As per survey, only 32% mentees agreed that the mentors introduced them to research and only 39% mentors helped mentees in setting career goals, which may be an area of concern.

CONCLUSION

The goal of the present study was to investigate how medical undergraduate students’ (mentees) and the faculty (mentors) perceived the ongoing mentorship program at our institute. Mentorship in our institute had a positive impact on mentees in terms of adjusting to new environment, psychosocial support, academic improvement, and personal development. Mentors also benefitted from mentoring the students in terms of improvement in their communication as well as teaching skills and building meaningful relationship with students. Some of the challenges of the on-going mentorship program included infrequent mentoring sessions and interaction with mentors, limited introduction to research during mentorship in medical school.