Support and faculty mentoring programmes for medical students in Germany, Switzerland and Austria

Woessner, Ralph; Honold, Marcus; Sn, Stehr; Wi, Steudel

doi:10.1046/j.1365-2923.2000.00406.x

Cited by 19 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 4 publications

(6 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Out of 22 mentoring programs with personally allocated mentors at German medical schools, 14 have been established within the last 2 years. Despite methodological differences, it is remarkable that in the study of Woessner et al in 2000 [20] only 10 German medical schools offered such programs. Only one program persisted over the past 10 years (Figure 2, Program I).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

More mentoring needed? A cross-sectional study of mentoring programs for medical students in Germany

et al. 2011

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

BackgroundDespite increasing recognition that mentoring is essential early in medical careers, little is known about the prevalence of mentoring programs for medical students. We conducted this study to survey all medical schools in Germany regarding the prevalence of mentoring programs for medical students as well as the characteristics, goals and effectiveness of these programs.MethodsA definition of mentoring was established and program inclusion criteria were determined based on a review of the literature. The literature defined mentoring as a steady, long-lasting relationship designed to promote the mentee's overall development. We developed a questionnaire to assess key characteristics of mentoring programs: the advocated mentoring model, the number of participating mentees and mentors, funding and staff, and characteristics of mentees and mentors (e.g., level of training). In addition, the survey characterized the mentee-mentor relationship regarding the frequency of meetings, forms of communication, incentives for mentors, the mode of matching mentors and mentees, and results of program evaluations. Furthermore, participants were asked to characterize the aims of their programs. The questionnaire consisted of 34 questions total, in multiple-choice (17), numeric (7) and free-text (10) format. This questionnaire was sent to deans and medical education faculty in Germany between June and September 2009. For numeric answers, mean, median, and standard deviation were determined. For free-text items, responses were coded into categories using qualitative free text analysis.ResultsWe received responses from all 36 medical schools in Germany. We found that 20 out of 36 medical schools in Germany offer 22 active mentoring programs with a median of 125 and a total of 5,843 medical students (6.9 - 7.4% of all German medical students) enrolled as mentees at the time of the survey. 14 out of 22 programs (63%) have been established within the last 2 years. Six programs (27%) offer mentoring in a one-on-one setting. 18 programs (82%) feature faculty physicians as mentors. Nine programs (41%) involve students as mentors in a peer-mentoring setting. The most commonly reported goals of the mentoring programs include: establishing the mentee's professional network (13 programs, 59%), enhancement of academic performance (11 programs, 50%) and counseling students in difficulties (10 programs, 45%).ConclusionsDespite a clear upsurge of mentoring programs for German medical students over recent years, the overall availability of mentoring is still limited. The mentoring models and goals of the existing programs vary considerably. Outcome data from controlled studies are needed to compare the efficiency and effectiveness of different forms of mentoring for medical students.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In 2000, Woessner et al [20] conducted a survey of all medical schools deans in Germany, Austria and Switzerland to determine the extent of mentoring and counseling offered to medical students. The study found that 10 (33%) medical schools offered mentoring programs with personally allocated mentors.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

More mentoring needed? A cross-sectional study of mentoring programs for medical students in Germany

et al. 2011

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Mentoring is known to develop professional attributes (Lindgren 2000;Markakis et al 2000) and facilitate socialization into the profession (Ramani 2006). Mentoring is also a way to reduce the students' anonymity on the university level (Woessner et al 1998(Woessner et al , 2000. Structured mentoring programmes for health professionals have been designed during the past few decades and literature describes various mentoring programme designs for doctors and medical students (Kalet et al 2002;Buddeberg-Fischer & Herta 2006;Sambunjak et al 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mentoring medical students during clinical courses: A way to enhance professional development

Kalén¹,

Stenfors

Hylin³

et al. 2010

Medical Teacher

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: Mentoring is known to develop professional attributes and facilitate socialization into a profession. Only a few structured mentoring programmes for medical students have been reported in the literature. Aim: The objective of this study was to investigate undergraduate medical students' experiences and perceptions of one-to-one mentoring and whether they felt that the mentorship promoted their personal and professional development. Methods: Medical students (n ¼ 118) during their third and fourth years of their studies were offered a personal mentor for 2 years and followed up via a questionnaire when the mentoring programme was completed. Statistical software was used to compute data. Open-ended questions were analyzed by content analysis. Results: Most of the respondents experienced that the mentoring programme had facilitated their professional and personal development. The role of the mentor was experienced as being more supportive than supplying knowledge. The students appreciated talking to a faculty not connected with their courses. The few barriers to a successful mentorship were mainly related to timing logistics and 'personal chemistry'. Conclusions: One-to-one mentoring during clinical courses seems to enhance the medical student's professional and personal development. Future studies are needed to get a deeper understanding and knowledge about factors of importance for successful mentorship.

show abstract

“…Mentoring is used in different health care educational programmes to facilitate students' professional development (Sambunjak et al 2006;Buddeberg-Fischer and Herta 2006;Markakis et al 2000;Yusoff et al 2009;Suen and Chow 2001;Nettleton and Bray 2008;Pitney and Ehlers 2004;Woessner et al 2000;Kalet et al 2002). Published reviews regarding formal mentorship have shown that most studies on undergraduate medical students specify whether such a programme exists, different designs, goals and durations and sometimes also the role of the mentor (Sambunjak et al 2006;Buddeberg-Fischer and Herta 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The core of mentorship: medical students' experiences of one-to-one mentoring in a clinical environment

Kalén

Ponzer

Silén

2011

Adv in Health Sci Educ

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Mentoring has been used in different health care educational programmes, but the core of mentorship, i.e., facilitating the development of medical students' professional competence, has not been explored in depth in the literature. In order to create effective and meaningful mentoring programmes, there is a need for deeper knowledge of the meaning of formal mentorship and, for this, the students' experiences are important. A mentoring program was set up where all medical students were offered a mentor during their first clinical courses; years 3-4. The mentors were physicians and their role as mentors was to support the students and act as sounding-boards, not to teach or assess knowledge. This study aimed to get a deeper understanding of the meaning of mentorship seen from the perspective of undergraduate medical students. A qualitative approach with individual interviews (N = 12) and inductive content analysis was chosen to investigate and interpret the meaning of mentorship. The results comprise three overarching themes: Space, Belief in the future and Transition. Having a mentor gave a sense of security and constituted a 'free zone' alongside the undergraduate programme. It gave hope about the future and increased motivation. The students were introduced to a new community and began to identify themselves as doctors. We would argue that one-to-one mentoring can create conditions for medical students to start to develop some parts of the professional competences that are more elusive in medical education programmes, such as reflective capacity, emotional competence and the feeling of belonging to a community.

show abstract

Support and faculty mentoring programmes for medical students in Germany, Switzerland and Austria

Cited by 19 publications

References 4 publications

More mentoring needed? A cross-sectional study of mentoring programs for medical students in Germany

More mentoring needed? A cross-sectional study of mentoring programs for medical students in Germany

Mentoring medical students during clinical courses: A way to enhance professional development

The core of mentorship: medical students' experiences of one-to-one mentoring in a clinical environment

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About