Student and faculty perspectives of a faculty-student mentoring programme in a dental school

In addition to an established peer mentoring programme, the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, School of Dentistry introduced a faculty-student mentoring programme, the first-year dental student (D1)-Faculty Guide Program, in 2013. The intent of the D1-Guide Program was to provide faculty mentorship for D1 students. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the outcomes of the programme and identify areas for improvement.

Faculty members, D2 and D3 students were surveyed regarding their experiences and perceptions of the D1-Guide Program with a seven question and 12 question survey, respectively, via Survey Monkey® and data were analysed.

The response rate for the students and faculty was 61% and 64%, respectively. The majority of faculty (92%) felt comfortable serving as a guide to the D1 students with 79% of those surveyed having served as a guide for 3 or 4 years. The majority of students (81%) felt that the D1-Guide Program provided mentoring that was not redundant to existing peer mentoring and valuable to their acclimation to dental school.

Despite adding additional duties for faculty and students, the D1-Guide Program was considered valuable during the student's first year of dental school with encouragement to continue the programme. The programme helped establish a student-faculty rapport beyond the boundaries of the classroom.