Abstract

Background: Mentoring was developed in the USA in the 1970s within large private-sector corporations to support junior staff. Since the 1990s, mentoring programs have been introduced in various medical professions, most frequently in the field of nursing. Mentoring is key to a successful career in medicine. Mentor programmes are increasingly common in undergraduate medicine and dentistry and many positive effects have been reported.

Objectives: To explore how teachers in medical and dental education understand their role as mentors. To explore the perceptions of faculties regarding mentoring medical students at Melaka Manipal Medical College

Methodology: Cross sectional analytic study was conducted at MMMC Melaka from February 2013 to May 2013.

Result: There were 48 faculties from Medicine and Dental (38 medicines and 10 dental) participated in this study who were teaching experiences range from 1 year to 36 year with mean 11.79 years. Regarding perception of faculties on the mentorship program, 80% of the faculties willing to discuss with the mentor regarding personal, financial issues  as well as academic performance individually, 97.9% were willing to help mentees to improve academic performance and 62.5% of faculties agree that there should have  a formal training prior to appointment as mentor 

Study Limitation: This study carried out at one medical university. It will be better if we can carry out all the medical universities in Malaysia

Conclusion: It was concluded that the roles, tasks and communication of mentor and mentees should be standardized. Mentors should have a formal training prior to appointment as mentor.