Twelve tips for personal advisers to undergraduate medical students

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. Most Higher Educational institutes have a system whereby a member of staff is identified as the student's personal adviser. The adviser's role is to offer advice and guidance, commonly for the full duration of the student's program. This is an important responsibility as it can involve a complex mixture of advice relating to academic support, pastoral concerns and health issues, as well as professionalism development. Despite the adviser being a key person in delivering the institution's duty of care, there is very little training and guidance for the teaching staff themselves when undertaking this role. Different Universities will use different titles for such a role and when using the term 'personal adviser' within this paper, the content can be transferable to any tutor whose role is to advise on a one to one basis. The aim of this paper is to offer suggestions and strategies for tutors to consider in order to support individual students in a holistic manner, and generate a discussion on the challenges to achieving effective individual support in a demanding higher education environment.