Experience of a faculty development workshop in mentoring at an Indian medical college

Our medical college is running a mentoring programme for undergraduate medical students since 2009. The academic leadership of the college identified the need to change the focus of the programme from mere problem- solving to professional and personal development of mentees.

A core group of faculty designed and implemented a workshop on mentoring for 28 mentors. The workshop included reflections on the participants' previous experiences about mentoring, discussion on perceptions of mentees about the existing mentoring programme, self-analysis of mentoring skills, overview of the Surrendering, Accepting, Gifting and Extending (SAGE) model and demonstration of effective mentoring skills using role plays and a film. We collected written anonymous feedback from participants at the end of the workshop to elicit their responses regarding various aspects of the programme, change in their views about mentoring and suggestions for future workshops.

A majority of the participants (17, 60.7%) said that role plays and reflection on role plays were the most valuable part of workshop as they provided clarity on the concepts about mentoring. The most frequently identified take-home messages were: building trust with the mentee (7, 25%), balance in life and approach towards the mentee (6, 21.4%), and understanding that mentoring is a process geared towards personal and professional development of the mentee (6, 21.4%).

The participants' reaction to the workshop was positive. The responses of participants suggested that the workshop was successful in changing their views regarding the purpose of the mentoring programme.