The Effectiveness of a Tailored Faculty Development Program for Undergraduate Mentoring and Its Impact on Mentor's Perceptions: A Mixed Methods Study.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: "Anubandh" the existing mentorship program at our institute used to start with enthusiasm but lacked sustainability throughout the year. This study aimed to assess the need for designing and conducting a faculty development program (FDP) and evaluating its impact on effective mentoring. METHODOLOGY: FDP was designed by assessing the perception of 50 teachers regarding undergraduate (UG) mentoring at a tertiary care teaching institute in central India, the NKP Salve Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Center and Lata Mangeshkar Hospital, Nagpur, India. It was developed and conducted by focusing on the global overview, mentoring policies of the institute and rationale while implementing mentorship. The effectiveness of FDP was tested by a change in pretest-posttest scores for assessing their knowledge and reflections on undergraduate mentoring. RESULTS: In the pre-FDP perceptions by mentors, the majority agreed that mentorship should be an integral part of the UG curriculum. Teachers felt that mentorship is an additional workload that needs to be given weightage in self-appraisal forms. A total of 81.2% of mentors emphasized on need for academic, social, and personal mentoring. After the FDP, there was a statistically significant improvement in the knowledge and attitude of mentors in all the assessed domains (χ2=2.648; df=6; p<0.05) like the need for UG mentoring in medical college and the role of faculties as a mentor. FDP sessions were appreciated by mentors for being motivating, interactive, and highly engaging with speakers having good oratory skills and using inspiring techniques with an overall rating of 9.2/10. CONCLUSION: There was an overall positive attitude about mentoring but many expressed the need for training in mentorship. The FDP was highly effective in improving the knowledge and attitude of mentors for effective mentoring.