Mentoring and personal development planning in postgraduate dental education: a review

Mentoring and Personal Development Plans (PDPs) are educational tools that have been piloted in postgraduate medical education in recent years. Along with another educational tool, performance appraisal, they have been introduced nationally as part of the recent General Medical Practitioner contract of April 2003. In the light of the compulsory Continuing Professional Development and Lifelong Learning Schemes introduced recently by the General Dental Council for all dentists, mentoring and PDPs will surely have important roles to play in postgraduate dental education in the future. This article reviews the roles that mentoring and PDPs have played in postgraduate education recently.