Abstract

Mentoring for medical students has been shown to be beneficial for mentees and mentors, aiding in career development, improved academics, and personal benefits like reducing burnout. The provision of mentoring is also an accreditation standard for all allopathic medical schools in the United States. This study examined a mentoring program in one urban medical school during the 2019-2020 academic year. The purpose of this study was to determine participant perceptions of their mentoring experiences and alignment with the qualities of the career and academic advising and mentoring standards identified by the literature, looking specifically at programmatic structure, oversight, integration into the medical education curriculum, guided matching process and training (Tan, Teo, Pei, Sng, Yap, Toh, & Krishna, 2018). Utilizing a 26-item questionnaire sent to 1,097 students and 39 faculty mentors, perceptions of the mentoring experience were measured. Responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics and an independent samples t-test to compare means between groups. With a response rate of 27.73%, data indicated participants found the closest alignment to the construct of training within this institution. Findings indicated no statistically significant differences in means between students and alumni. Between mentors and students, mentors were found to have a statistically significant higher mean in programmatic structure and training constructs. For mentors and alumni, mentors were found to have a statistically significant higher mean in the area of training. Mentoring programs need to be aligned with mentoring standards that promote the most effective mentor-mentee relationship. However, with an emergence of a new generation of medical students with more distinct needs, future research is necessary to determine characteristics of successful mentors and determining how to assign students to mentors for effective mentoring. Identifying disconnects between a mentor program and mentoring best practices could assist in improving mentoring outcomes and satisfaction.

Notes

If this is your thesis or dissertation, and want to learn how to access it or for more information about readership statistics, contact us at STARS@ucf.edu

Graduation Date

2020

Semester

Summer

Advisor

Vitale, Thomas

Degree

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

College

College of Community Innovation and Education

Department

Educational Leadership and Higher Education

Degree Program

Educational Leadership; Executive Track

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0008243; DP0023597

URL

https://purls.library.ucf.edu/go/DP0023597

Language

English

Release Date

8-15-2020

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Doctoral Dissertation (Open Access)

Download

Share

COinS