Theme | Mentees perceptions | Mentors perceptions |
---|---|---|
The role of the mentor | • Provides career, academic and personal guidance • Provides motivation and encouragement to mentee • Help mentees realize their strengths and minimize weaknesses | • Provides career, academic and personal guidance • Acts as a role model • Provides guidance regarding professionalism and ethical issues |
Desired characteristics of a mentor and mentoring relationship | • Mutual trust and respect • Shared interests • Based on established relationship | • Mutual trust and respect • Shared interests • Relationship free of intimidation with mentee feeling empowered |
Overlapping roles of mentors and supervisors | • Can lead to conflicts of interest • Can lead to lack of trust to share non-academic issues • Potential benefit of shared interest and investment in project | • Can lead to conflicts of interest |
Issues of identifying mentors | • Benefits of mentee selecting mentor leading to more successful, authentic and reciprocal mentoring relationship • Drawbacks of mentee selecting mentor include mentors having too many mentees and mentees may have difficulty identifying a mentor • Drawback of assigned mentor is that mentees may not be comfortable with the relationship | • Benefits of mentee selecting mentor leading to more successful, authentic and reciprocal mentoring relationship • Drawbacks of mentee selecting mentor include mentors having too many mentees and mentees may have difficulty identifying a mentor • Assigned mentoring relationships may be difficult to sustain |
Barriers to mentoring | • Lack of knowledge about current mentoring programme • Lack of formal structure • Uncertainty about who should initiate relationship • Unclear roles and expectations • Lack of mentoring skills | • Lack of knowledge about current mentoring programme • Lack of formal structure • Uncertainty about who should initiate relationship • Unclear roles and expectations • Lack of designated time for mentoring • Lack of documentation, feedback and accountability in mentoring |
Recommendations for future development of mentoring program | • Need for more formalized programme • Create shared mentor/mentee understanding and expectations of mentoring • Need for mentoring model adapted to local context | • Need for more formalized programme   ◦ College requirements for number of mentoring meetings   ◦ Assistance with scheduling mentoring meetings   ◦ Measurable outcomes for mentoring   ◦ Recognition for mentoring   ◦ Place where concerns about mentoring can be taken   ◦ Create shared mentor/mentee understanding and expectations of mentoring • Need for mentoring model adapted to local context |