Status of Mentoring Among Clinical Medical and Dental Students of the College of Medical Sciences, University of Maiduguri, Nigeria

doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-4904309/v1

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Status of Mentoring Among Clinical Medical and Dental Students of the College of Medical Sciences, University of Maiduguri, Nigeria

https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4904309/v1

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OBJECTIVES:To assess the status of mentoring among clinical dental and medical students of the College of Medical Sciences, University of Maiduguri, Northeast, Nigeria.

Materials and Methods: a descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted to sample the opinions of 240 students of clinical dental and medical students. A 13-item self – self-administered, semi-structured questionnaire designed and distributed through Google Forms was used to collect information from respondents on the status of mentoring programs at the College of Medical Science. Data Collected was analyzed with the use of Microsoft Excel 2016 version, where descriptive statistics such as frequency and percentage were generated from the data.

Results; of the 240 respondents studied, 187(78%) of students are aware of the college mentoring program while 31(12.9%) of students were not aware, 15(6.3%) were not sure they were aware and 5(2.1%) did not respond to the question on the mentoring program initiated in the college.

Conclusion: the status of mentoring in the College of Medical Science as ongoing. The mentoring program of the college at the time of this study is active and ongoing with increased awareness among students. However, the frequency of meetings between mentor-mentee has reduced over time with a lack of protected time for mentoring.

Educational Philosophy and Theory

Health Economics & Outcomes Research

Hospital Medicine

Integrative & Complementary Medicine

Personalized Medicine

mentorship

clinical students

college of medical sciences

Mentorship offers a transitional space to support students in dealing with the challenges presented by the external expectations on and the internal difficulties resulting from the feelings about those expectations. Students today face more challenges than ever before. The advice and guidance of mentors are needed to support the students of today, who will be future leaders and mentors.² Currently, there is a global emphasis on the need to increase the mentorship of young scientists to train the next generation of leaders in global health and meet the ever-growing demands of human resources for health.³

In Nigeria, the need for effective mentors has gradually risen over the past 5 to 10 years with the increasing number of well-trained professionals entering the workforce.⁴

A college mentoring program was instituted by the Provost of the College of Medical Sciences, University of Maiduguri over two years ago, while its status among the students of the Faculty of Allied Health Sciences, University of Maiduguri has been studied⁵, its status of practice in the entire college is yet to be ascertained by research. Hence, the need for this study

A descriptive cross-sectional study design was adopted for this study, which was conducted in 2021. A 13-item self-administered semi-structured questionnaire, designed and administered through Google Forms, was used to collect information from the participants on the status of the Mentoring Programme at the College of Medical Sciences at the University of Maiduguri. The questionnaire contains two sections; demographic and mentoring status sections. The study population comprised students from Basic Medical Sciences, Basic Clinical Sciences, Clinical Sciences, and Dentistry.

A convenient sampling technique was used for this study. All clinical Medical and Dental students from the College of Medical Sciences were included, while students from the Faculty of Allied Health Sciences were excluded due to a similar recent study in that faculty. Additionally, all Pre-Clinical students and those who refused to participate were excluded.

Data collected was analysed using Microsoft Excel 2016, and descriptive statistics such as frequency and percentage were generated. Ethical approval was obtained from the ethical committee of the radiography department and informed consent was obtained from all participants before they participated in the study.

A total of two hundred and forty (240) responses were received from three Faculties in the clinical site of the College of Medical Science University of Maiduguri, the number of students that participated from various faculties include; Basic clinical sciences 45(18.8%), Dentistry 69(28.7%), and Clinical sciences (MBBS) 126(52.5%). Among the respondents 154(65%) were Male, 83(35%) were Female with the age range of 18-29yrs 191(79.6%) having the highest responses

Table 3.1

Socio-Demographic Results of Students
Variables	Frequency(n = 240)	Percent (%)
Gender
Female	83	35
Male	154	65
Grand Total	240	100
Age Group
18–29	191	79.6
30–39	48	20
40–59	0	0
(blank)	0	0
Grand Total	240	100
Faculty
Basic Medical Sciences	45	18.8
Dentistry	69	28.7
Clinical Science (MBBS)	126	52.5
Grand Total	240	100

On the status of mentorship in the college, 187(78%) of students are aware of the college mentoring programme while 31(12.9%) of students were not aware, 15(6.3%) were not sure they were aware and 5(2.1%) did not respond to the question on the mentoring program initiated in the college. results obtained from this study also shows that 177(73.8%) have been assigned to a mentor, 52(21.7%) are not assigned to a mentor, 11(4.6%) are not sure whether they have been assigned to a mentor.

Among the 177(73.8%) mentees assigned to mentors, 117(55.5%) mentees have had contact, 71(33.6%) did not have contact with their mentors, and 23(10.9%) are not sure.

In terms of the number of mentees per mentor, 78(32.5%) of the mentees are less than five in number under their mentors, 105(43.7%) are five in number, 57(23.8%) are more than ten in number under their mentors respectively as shown

Table 3.2

Status of Mentorship Practices
Variables	Frequency(n = 240)	Percent (%)
Are you aware of mentoring program initiated in the college?
Not sure	15	6.3
No	31	12.9
Yes	194	80.8
Grand Total	240	100.00
Have you been assigned to a mentor?
No	52	21.7
Not sure	11	4.6
Yes	177	73.8
Grand Total	240	100.00
If yes, did you have any contact with your mentor?
No	71	33.6
Not sure	23	10.9
Yes	117	55.5
Grand Total	240	100.00
How many of you are assigned as mentees under your mentor?
Less than five	78	32.5
Five to Ten	105	43.7
More than ten	57	23.8
Grand Total	240	100.00

Challenges facing mentorship practices

On challenges facing Mentoring practice in the College, 164(68.3%) respondents highlighted “Lack of dedicated time for mentoring”, 158(65.8%) “Low awareness of academic mentorship program at the college”, 126(52.5%) “Limited awareness of role mentors/mentees by student”, 124(51.7%) “initiation of mentor-mentee relationship”, 105(43.8%) “Limited interest by mentees”, 101(42.1%) “Lack of logistic for mentorship programme”, respectively as shown in the chart on chart

On possible ways to improve mentoring practice in the college, 180(75%) respondents highlighted the following areas; “Improvement of mentoring skills, 171(71.3 “motivation of mentors by institutional recognition”, 151(62.9%) “Resource mobilization to support mentoring activities”, respectively as shown in

This project assessed mentoring status in the College of Medical Science University of Maiduguri. Findings from the study show that the majority of the respondents (65%) were male, possibly because the number of males is more than that of females in the college on casual observation.

On the status of the mentoring program, a greater percentage187 (78%) of the student population in this study were aware of the program and only 51(21.3%) of students knew nothing about it. This finding contradicts a similar study conducted by Ahmadi⁵ among students of the faculty of allied health sciences, which reported that close to half of the college students lack awareness on the program.

Limited awareness of the role of mentors/mentees by students and limited interest of mentees were also highlighted in that study.

A greater proportion of those in this study (78.3%) have been assigned to a mentor with only half (55.5%) having contact. This means mentors and mentees have to create time for more contacts. Only a few numbers of the population from this study do not have mentors and/or do not even know them. This means mentoring awareness has improved over time among the students. This is similar to the studies of Mitchell et al.⁶

On the challenges facing the mentoring practice in the College, the majority of the respondents highlighted Low awareness of the academic mentorship program at the college, Lack of dedicated time for mentoring, limited awareness of role of mentor/mentees, and lack of logistics for the mentorship program. While the authors agree with the opinions of respondents on the other challenges facing mentoring in the college, low awareness is not a major challenge as statistics from this study show that 78% of the study population in this study are aware of the mentoring program. Other studies that share similar views about the challenges of mentoring medical ^5–8

Mentees need more sensitization and orientation on the role of mentors/mentees in a mentoring relationship as expressed by respondents in this study. There were responses from the open-ended section on the challenges facing the mentoring practice in the college, The majority of the respondents highlighted how to improve the mentoring program in the college majority of the respondents suggested; “Improvement of mentoring skills and awareness”, “Pairing or matching of mentor/mentee should be based on need and common interests” and motivation of mentors by institutional recognition which is similar to study by Masehela and Mabika in 2017⁹, which recommended improved monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to curb the inconsistencies and irregularities reported by the mentors, mentees, lecturer and educational development practitioner in their studies.

This study shows the status of mentoring in the College of Medical Science as ongoing. there is great improvement in its awareness among the students. However, there is a severe decrease in the frequency of meetings between mentor-mentees. Some of the Challenges of mentoring identified in this study are; low awareness of the program, and lack of dedicated time for it.

Mentors and mentees have to create time for more contact and there is a need for college management to implement new policies concerning mentoring programs (like giving mentoring allowance to mentors).

Some of the respondents were not willing to participate in the study.

There was incomplete filling of the questionnaire.

Only those who were online at the time of this study were able to participate. Hence those offline could not submit their responses.

Harding S (2013) Rethinking standpoint epistemology: What is strong objectivity? InFeminist epistemologies. Sep 5 (pp. 49–82). Routledge
Nakanjako D, Katamba A, Kaye DK, Okello E, Kamya MR, Sewankambo N, Mayanja-Kizza H (2014) Doctoral training in Uganda: evaluation of mentoring best practices at Makerere university college of health sciences. BMC Med Educ 14:1–8
Nora A, Crisp G (2007) Mentoring students: Conceptualizing and validating the multi-dimensions of a support system. J Coll Student Retention: Res Theory Pract 9(3):337–356
Abubakar MG, Nwobi CI, Luntsi G, Nkubli FB, Moi SA (2018) Mentorship in Radiography: an Indispensable Tool for Sustainable Healthcare Transformation. J Radiogr Radiat Sci. ;32(1)
Ahmadi Assessment of The Status Programme of Mentoring Among Faculty of Allied Health Sciences Students University of Maiduguri 2021. Undergraduate research project University of Maiduguri. Unpublished
Feldman MD, Arean PA, Marshall SJ, Lovett M, O'Sullivan P (2010) Does mentoring matter: results from a survey of faculty mentees at a large health sciences university. Med Educ Online 15(1):5063
Najafinejad S, Tabatabaei S, Maghbouli N, Ahmadi NS (2021) The effect of peer mentoring on motivation and self-regulated learning in medical students during transition. J Educ Health Promotion. ;10(1)
SHITTU TO, HUNPEGAN HD (2024) ADEBAYO EL. Mentorship the Mentees: Panacea Towards the Attainment of Academic Excellence in Nigerian University. FUOYE J EDUCATIONAL Manage. ;1(1)
Masehela LM, Mabika M (2017) An assessment of the impact of the Mentoring Programme on student performance. J Student Affairs Afr 5(2):163–182

The authors declare no competing interests.

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Status of Mentoring Among Clinical Medical and Dental Students of the College of Medical Sciences, University of Maiduguri, Nigeria

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1.0 INTRODUCTION

2.0 METHODOLOGY

3.0 Results and Analysis

4.0 DISCUSSION

5.0 Conclusion

6.0 Recommendation

7.0 Limitations of The Study

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