ABSTRACT
Introduction:
In medical education, peer mentoring programs encourage more experienced students to help beginner colleagues in their development. Mentoring the individual during university life is a way of offering support, especially during periods of transition, enabling the debate of relevant topics often not covered in the formal curriculum, such as academic performance, mental health and soft skills.
Objective:
To understand the contributions of peer mentoring in the transition to clinical rotations at a medical school, based on the views of the participating students.
Method:
Cross-sectional, descriptive study with quantitative and qualitative approach. There were 3 mentoring journeys between peers, with 4 to 6 weekly meetings between groups of student mentors from the third to fifth year and mentees from the second year. There were activities focused on learning medical skills, discussing clinical cases, training in anamnesis and medical communication, in addition to sharing experiences. Participants were invited to anonymously answer self-applied online questionnaires before the beginning and after the last meeting. Simple statistical analyses were performed, absolute and relative frequencies of the variables concerning the objective questions; and thematic analysis of responses to discursive questions.
Result:
144 students participated in the 3 journeys: 99 mentees, 45 mentors. 66% of mentees and 86% of mentors answered the questionnaires. The vast majority reported a view that showed mentoring to be effective, bringing benefits to mentees and mentors. The mentees expressed feeling more prepared for the next activities involving outpatient care, more satisfied with their own academic development and with the training activities in medical communication skills offered by the course. Mentors reported that their mentees also prepared them to advance in the course and that they helped with personal and academic development.
Conclusion:
According to the views of the participants, the peer mentoring in the transition to clinical rotations proved to promote academic and personal development, stimulating the engagement of students, both mentors and mentees, with the teaching-learning process. More studies with different methodologies, such as the application of scales, prospective follow-up or analysis of success indicators may enhance our understanding of the contributions of peer mentoring to the training of future physicians.
Keywords:
Mentoring; Peer mentoring; Medical education