Combining Support and Assessment in Health Professions Education: Mentors' and Mentees' Experiences in a Programmatic...

Area of Science:

• Health Professions Education
• Medical Education
• Assessment in Education

Background:

• Mentors provide low-stakes feedback to mentees, which can also inform high-stakes decisions.
• This dual role may create tension in the mentor-mentee relationship.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore how undergraduate health professions mentors and mentees experience the combination of developmental support and assessment.
• To understand the impact of this combination on the mentor-mentee relationship.

Main Methods:

• Pragmatic qualitative research approach.
• Semi-structured, vignette-based interviews with 24 mentors and 11 mentees.
• Participants included learners from medicine and biomedical sciences.
• Thematic data analysis.

Main Results:

• Experiences varied; some relationships thrived, while others faced tensions.
• Tensions arose from the combined roles and unintended program-level design consequences.
• Affected dimensions included relationship quality, trust, and conversation focus.
• Strategies like transparency, expectation management, and role clarification were used to mitigate tensions.

Conclusions:

• Combining developmental support and assessment responsibilities can be successful but may cause relationship tensions.
• Program-level design decisions regarding assessment structure and responsibility division are crucial.
• Continuous mutual calibration of expectations is vital for managing tensions.