BMC medical education
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BMC medical education · Jan 2016
The medical students' perspective of faculty and informal mentors: a questionnaire study.
Student mentoring is an important aspect of undergraduate medical education. While medical schools often assign faculty advisors to medical students as mentors to support their educational experience, it is possible for the students to pursue mentors informally. The possible role of these informal mentors and their interactions with the students in a faculty mentorship program has not been reported. This study builds upon previous work that suggested many students have informal mentors, and that there might be interplay between these two types of mentors. This study was conducted to report the experience of undergraduate medical students in a faculty mentorship program of their faculty mentors and if applicable, of their informal mentors. ⋯ Informal mentorship was common for medical students. The presence of an informal mentor was not associated with dissatisfaction with the Faculty advisor or with the mentorship program. It is likely students may pursue informal mentorship for career-related reasons.