Acceptability of clinical teaching by mentorship among medical students in Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Mentoring is “a process whereby an experienced, highly regarded, empathetic person guides another individual in the development and reexamination of their own ideas, learning, and personal and professional developments.” We determine the acceptability of mentoring by undergraduate medical students in obstetrics and gynecology and the challenges of mentoring as perceived by the mentees. Patients and Methods: All undergraduate students of obstetrics and gynecology for 2009/2010 sessions were assigned to a mentor according to their admission numbers for clinical teaching. Guidelines were drawn for the scope, mode of teaching as well as the timing of contact for 16 weeks. Structured questionnaires were administered to assess their acceptability of the scheme as well as the problems of mentoring. The data were analyzed by the statistical package for social sciences. Results: One hundred and twenty 5th year medical students were interviewed. They were aged 22-32 years with a mean of 25.7 years. There were 82 (73.2%) males and 30 (26.8%) females. The students were in medical schools for an average of 6.1 years. Eighty-two students (73.2%) assessed the scheme as good while 4 (3.7%) assessed it as poor. The teaching objectives were judged to be satisfactorily met by 99 (88.6%) students and 91 (81.3%) assessed contact with teachers as satisfactory. The clinic facilities were thought to be good for learning by 102 (91.1%) and 79 (70.5%) considered the facilities provided to be conducive for individual private learning. Facilities for research were considered to be adequate by 53 (47%). The main drawback of the scheme was lack of uniformity in standard by the mentors, as reported by 87 (77.6%). Conclusion: Mentoring in clinical medicine is both convenient and acceptable by medical students.