Evaluation of a medical school's mentorship program using CIPP model: a mixed-methods study

Mentoring medical students has become a prevalent educational strategy in medical schools with the purpose of their professional development. For a mentoring program, it is essential for its timely evaluation to make it successful in achieving the program's goals. This mixed-method study was designed to evaluate the newly started mentorship program at a medical school through Context Input Process and Product (CIPP) evaluation model.

We included 182 mentees and 29 mentors who were involved in the mentorship program for the academic years of 2023 and 2024. The quantitative portion of program evaluation was carried out through pre-tested separate surveys for mentors and mentees generated as per CIPP model of evaluation utilizing a 6-point Likert scale. For qualitative analysis, Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed through inductive thematic analysis to generate codes and identify overarching themes.

The quantitative data indicated that only 15-20% of mentees strongly agreed that the program's goals were achieved. Many mentors reported a generally positive attitude towards the mentorship program and rated the program as good (62.1%) whereas only 17.2% rated the program as very good. The qualitative data revealed unsatisfactory perception from both mentors and mentees due to unclear aims and objectives, matching process of mentees and mentors, inaccessible mentors and mentees to each other and lack of training of mentors.

We found that both mentors and mentees recognized the importance of mentorship in medical training. Based on the results of the CIPP evaluation, the findings of this mixed-method study suggest that the implementation of the mentoring program is not up to the mark, and several areas need improvement including conveying proper aims and objectives, accessibility of mentors and mentees to each other and training of mentors for the program.