Mentoring Medical Students in Your General Practice

Background: Mentoring medical students in general practices is becoming more common in Australia due to formalised scholarship programs and informal approaches by students.

Objective: This paper defines mentoring in Australian general practice. Practical suggestions are made on how to structure a mentorship program in your practice.

Discussion: Mentoring differs from leadership and teaching. It is a long-term relationship between a student and an experienced general practitioner. Avoiding summative assessment in mentorship is important to its success. Mentoring is about forming a safe place to confidentially discuss personal and professional issues between a mentor and student. This is based on defining roles and mutual trust. At the same time, students crave formative feedback. Unfortunately, present feedback models are based on teaching principles that can blur the differences between assessor, teacher and mentor. Mentorship can provide students with orientation and learning experiences so that they are prepared for practice as an intern.