Premium
Perspectives on being a mentor for undergraduate dental students
Author(s) -
StenforsHayes T.,
Lindgren L. E.,
Tranæus S.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
european journal of dental education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.583
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1600-0579
pISSN - 1396-5883
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0579.2010.00649.x
Subject(s) - medical education , focus group , perspective (graphical) , professional development , psychology , dental education , medicine , exploratory research , dentistry , artificial intelligence , sociology , computer science , anthropology , marketing , business
As part of the new study programme in Dentistry, an obligatory mentor programme was introduced during autumn 2005 for all student dentists at Karolinska Institutet, Sweden. The aim of the programme is to provide support and guidance for the students in their professional role as dentists. All mentors in the programme are licenced dentists and lecturers at the Department of Dental Medicine. The mentors follow three to five mentees throughout the entire 5 year programme. This study aims to evaluate the programme from the mentors’ perspective and to explore the perceived effects of being a mentor. Following an exploratory focus group, questionnaires were distributed to all mentors ( n = 66, response rate 83%). The results of the evaluation of the programme show that being a mentor is perceived to be rewarding in many different ways, including an increased understanding of the students’ situation and some professional development as a teacher.