Indexing
All Issues
Submission
Author Guidelines
Reviewers
Editorial Members
Publication Fee
Vol.1 , No. 3, Publication Date: Jul. 24, 2014, Page: 48-52
| [1] | Edeghonghon Olayemi, Department of Haematology, College of Health Sciences, University of Ghana, Korle Bu Campus; Ghana Institute of Clinical Genetics, Accra, Ghana. |
| [2] | Eugenia Quartey, Department of Haematology, Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Accra, Ghana. |
| [3] | Eugene Tettey, Department of Haematology, Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Accra, Ghana. |
| [4] | Michael Acquah, Department of Haematology, Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Accra, Ghana. |
| [5] | Amma Benneh, Department of Haematology, Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Accra, Ghana. |
| [6] | Yaw Osafo, Department of Chemical Pathology, Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Accra, Ghana. |
| [7] | Osa Olayemi, Polyclinic, Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Accra, Ghana. |
Mentoring is considered a core component of academic medicine; the mentor is usually highly regarded and guides the mentee in developing his or her own ideas leading to personal and professional development. Formal mentoring in postgraduate medical education is relatively new in most parts of Africa including Ghana. This study was designed to estimate the need for mentoring, its prevalence and impact among resident doctors at a Ghanaian Teaching Hospital. A cross sectional descriptive study using a piloted structured questionnaire of mentoring was carried out at the premier teaching hospital in Ghana. Resident doctors from the five departments with largest resident doctor populations were invited to participate in the study. The response rate was 61.1% with a mentoring prevalence of 39.7%. There was a largely unmet need for mentoring among resident doctors with majority of respondents preferring a formal mentoring relationship. Female doctors were more likely to have mentors and no mentee reported any conflict with their mentor. A large proportion of doctors without mentors had other forms of support. Mentees felt they had benefitted from mentoring leading to satisfaction with the training programme. Most mentors encouraged the independent career choices of their mentees. But influence of mentors on mentees’ research activities was less appreciable. We recommend larger studies preferably multi-centred, focusing on mentors and their role in the mentoring relationship. Similarly it would be interesting to investigate the part played by training institutions as far as mentoring is concerned.
Keywords
Mentoring, Impact, Postgraduate Medical, Training, Ghana
Reference
| [01] | Bligh J. Mentoring: an invisible support network. Med. Educ. 1999; 33:2- 3. |
| [02] | Sambunjak D, Straus SE, Marusic A. Mentoring in academic medicine: a systematic review. JAMA. 2006; 296: 1103-1115. |
| [03] | Donovan A, Donovan J. Mentorship in postgraduate training programmes: views of Canadian programme directors. Med. Educ. 2009; 43: 155–158. |
| [04] | Frei, E., Stamm, M., Buddeberg-Fischer, B. Mentoring programs for medical students – a review of the PubMed literature 2000 – 2008. BMC. Med. Educ. 2010; 10:32. |
| [05] | American Psychological Association. Introduction to mentoring: a guide for mentors and mentees; 2006 [cited 10 June 2014] Available from: (Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/6HGnTybhO) |
| [06] | Aagaard EM, Hauer KE. A cross sectional descriptive study of mentoring relationships formed by medical students. J. Gen. Intern. Med. 2003; 18: 298 – 302. |
| [07] | Sambunjak D, Straus SE, Marusic A. A systematic review of qualitative research on the meaning and characteristics of mentoring in academic medicine. J. Gen. Intern. Med. 2009; 25: 72–78. |
| [08] | Brown AJ, Seils DM, Thompson PM. Access and diversity in academic mentoring. JAMA. 2007; 298: 739. |
| [09] | Ross N K. Sample design for educational survey research; 2005 [cited 10 June 2014]. Available from:(Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/6HGnfZgwk) |
| [10] | Coleman VH, Power ML, Williams S et al. Racial and gender differences in obstetrics and gynecology residents’ perceptions of mentoring. J. Contin. Educ. Health. Prof. 2005; 25: 268- 277. |
| [11] | Flint JH, Jahangir AA, Browner BD et al. The value of mentorship in orthopaedic surgery resident education: the residents' perspective. J. Bone. Joint. Surg. Am. 2009; 91: 1017-1022. |
| [12] | Rivera JA, Levine RB, Wright SM. Completing a scholarly project during residency training: perspectives of residents who have been successful. J. Gen. Intern. Med. 2005; 20:366-369. |
| [13] | Osborn EH, Ernster VL, Martin JB. Women’s attitudes toward careers in academic medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. Acad .Med. 1992; 67: 59-62. |
| [14] | Chew LD, Watanabe JM, Buchwald D et al. Junior faculty’s perspectives on mentoring. Acad. Med. 2003;78 :652. |
| [15] | Caniano DA, Sonnino RE, Paolo AM. Keys to career satisfaction: insights from a survey of women pediatric surgeons. J. Pediatr. Surg. 2004; 39: 984-990. |
| [16] | The Doctor Forum. Mentoring for doctors: enhancing the benefits; 2003 [cited 10 June 2014]. Available from: (Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/6HGnn35xf) |
| [17] | Wilson FC. Mentoring in orthopaedics: an evolving need for nurture. J. Bone. Joint. Surg. Am. 2004; 86: 1089-1091. |
| [18] | Curtis JA, Adam H, Shelov SP. A formal mentoring program in a pediatric residency. Acad. Med. 1995; 70: 453-454. |
| [19] | Levy BD, Katz JT, Wolf MA et al. An initiative in mentoring to promote residents' and faculty members' careers. Acad. Med. 2004; 79:845-850. |
| [20] | Jackson VA, Palepu A, Szalacha L et al. “Having the right chemistry”: a qualitative study of mentoring in academic medicine. Acad. Med. 2003; 78: 328–334. |
| [21] | Williams LL, Levine JB, Malhotra S et al. The good- enough mentoring relationship. Acad. Psychiatry. 2004; 28:111–115. |
| [22] | Koopman RJ, Thiedke CC. Views of family medicine department Chairs about mentoring junior faculty. Med. Teach. 2005; 27: 734–737. |
| [23] | Pololi L, Knight S. Mentoring faculty in academic medicine a new paradigm? J. Gen. Intern. Med. 2005; 20: 866–870. |
| [24] | Sambunjak D, Marusic A. Mentoring: what's in a name? JAMA. 2009; 302: 2591-2592. |
| [25] | Özkalp E, Kirel C, Sungur Z et al. Mentoring relations in the aircraft industry: a case study in Turkey. International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring 2008; 6: 67 – 77. |
| [26] | Osborn EH. Factors influencing students’ choices of primary care or other specialties. Acad. Med. 1993; 68:572-574. |
| [27] | Sawatzky JA, Enns CL. A mentoring needs assessment: validating mentorship in nursing education. J. Prof. Nurs. 2009; 25:145-150. |
| [28] | Ko CY, Whang EE, Karamanoukian R et al. What is the best method of surgical training? a report of America’s leading senior surgeons. Arch. Surg. 1998; 133: 900-905. |
| [29] | Lukish J, Cruess D. Personal satisfaction and mentorship are critical factors for today’s resident surgeons to seek surgical training. Am. Surg. 2005; 71: 971-974. |
