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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol. 8, No. 3
Publication Date: March 25, 2021
DOI:10.14738/assrj.83.9931. Alkhadragy, R. (2021). Are you a mentor? A Qualitative study: Imago-graphic Students’ Mirror Views. Advances in Social Sciences
Research Journal, 8(3) 652-661.
Are you a mentor? A Qualitative study: Imago-graphic Students’
Mirror Views
Rania Alkhadragy
Medical Education Department, Faculty of Medicine,
Suez CanaL University, Egypt
ABSTRACT
Objectives: Mentoring is widely acknowledged for providing support,
fostering students’ learning and self-development. This study was
conducted at the Faculty of Medicine, Suez Canal University with the
following objectives, exploring students’ perception of their mentors,
analysing expected roles and essential skills for mentors.
Methodology: A qualitative study was conducted. A focus group was
planned in the first mentorship session, a sample of 30 year 1 and 2
students divided into 2 focus groups (n=15 students per a focus
group). Focus group started with an imaginary students’ drawing of
the mentor followed by further analysis and discussion. Results: Data
displayed in a graphical format, and then further discussed to have
more details. Three main themes had emerged: perception of
mentors, role of the mentor and expectations from mentors.
Perception was then analysed into positive, where the ease of
communication was mostly discussed, and negative perception
where the fear of humiliation was one of the common students’ fears.
For mentors’ roles, guidance for portfolio submission was the highest
frequency (45%) then came the role of academic and personal
support (30%). Conclusion: Mentorship experience is a rich process
of interaction and communication between mentors and mentees.
Mentors should receive appropriate training to be well prepared for
their roles. This study provides practical insights into essential skills
mentors should have for an effective mentorship experience.
Keywords: mentorship, info-graphic, mentors, qualitative, focus group
INTRODUCTION
Traditionally, there was a trend in medicine to emphasis on didactic training rather than
facilitated learning. With time, this has evolved especially with the development of social learning
theory by Bandura’s which gained popularity in 1977. The latter was based on that learning
occurs through observation, imitation, role modelling or another person which represents the
role model [1]. Thereafter, different terminologies have been emerged in medical education
where clear demarcation wasn’t that easy task. So, when we are trying to define one to one
activity, mentorship, supervision and coaching are usually popping up.
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Alkhadragy, R. (2021). Are you a mentor? A Qualitative study: Imago-graphic Students’ Mirror Views. Advances in Social Sciences Research
Journal, 8(3) 652-661.
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URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.83.9931
The term ‘supervision’ originated from professions outside medicine. It has been used for many
years in the mental health world and nursing to mean regular, structured, extended encounters
aimed at reflecting on casework [2].All one - to - one supervision contains an element
of professional development and an element of performance monitoring or standard setting.
These elements may be present either implicitly or explicitly. The emphasis on one or the other
will vary greatly, depending on the circumstances. The positive in research was that skills for
supervision can be taught and learned [3].
Coaching is a form of supervision that has been defined as unlocking a person’s potential to
maximise their own performance. The coaching relationship, like mentoring, is a voluntary and
confidential one. Meanwhile, unlike mentoring, there may be a focus on a limited number of tasks
or just one important task, for example, leadership [4].Mentoring is usually understood as
guidance and support offered by a more experienced colleague, although there are also
descriptions of peer mentoring or co – mentoring [5,6]. Mentoring may be either informal or
formal. Where offered as part of a formal scheme, mentoring is often wide ranging, covering not
just clinical work but professional relationships and career plans as well [7,8]. Whatever the
nomination, studies have supported that having a good mentor early in your career can mean the
difference between success and failure in any field.
Mentorship skills include but not exclusively the following; instructing and developing
capabilities which involved some sort of teaching and instruction mainly in formal mentorship
and helping mentees to gain broader knowledge, inspiring which characterizes superb mentors,
providing positive and corrective feedback, managing risks by preventing their mentees from
making unnecessary mistakes while learning to take appropriate risks, and opening doors by
being certain that mentees’ abilities are noticed by others [9]. Research on this area revealed
that, to develop an effective mentorship relationship between mentors and mentees, a fairly
structured process and specific skills have to be applied [10].
Hence, came the idea, each mentor has certain skills that can be taught and will subsequently
reflect on the students’ mentorship experience. Thus, faculty has to be vigilant focusing on these
elements when planning mentors training programs to satisfy targeted learner needs. Therefore,
this study was conducted aiming at evaluating students’ perception of their mentors and allowing
the mentors to reflect back on their applied skills in this process. Imago-graphic was selected to
give students room for creativity and personal space and to express their feelings and fears in a
safe environment. Imago-graphic term has been derived from info graphic which has become
more popular with the use of internet and social network. Imagine from imagination, graph; to
make visual communication tool denoting how students are imagining their mentors, their
behaviours, interactions, manner of communication to fulfil this needs [11].
METHODOLOGY
This qualitative study was conducted at the Faculty of Medicine, Suez Canal University. The study
sample included a sample of year 1 and 2 students divided into 2 focus groups (n=15 students
per a focus group). Mentorship of portfolio program was newly introduced to undergraduate
basic sciences students where several roles were assigned to each mentor, being an academic
supervisor, coach and assessor [12]. The mentors received formal training prior to the start of
the program in the form of faculty development workshops and orientation sessions.
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Description of the intervention
This study aimed at investigating students’ perceptions of their mentors' imaginary pictures and
depicting the attributes and skills a mentor should have for a Mentorship/portfolio program.
Focus groups
The discussions were held on campus in an already agreed upon meeting rooms for mentorship
program sessions. They were conducted during university hours, and each focus group consisted
of 15 students and took an average of 1 hour to conduct.
The focus group was conducted during the first mentorship session in mentorship/ portfolio
program implementation. This was planned to avoid any prior experience of students with the
mentorship process and the effect nature of mentors/ mentees relationships.
The session started with an introductory debrief by the mentor to students, setting ground rules
and for ice breaking.
A semi structured focus group was planned focusing on asking students the following questions:
1. How they perceived their mentors?
2. Can you imagine your mentor role and translate that into a simple drawing in a given
piece of paper?
3. What did they expect from their mentors?
This was followed by collecting pieces of papers, elaborating the significance of each drawing,
and how they relate them to the attributes and skills they thought should be presented in their
mentors. Precautions were made to reassure students that their comments would be kept
confidential, and hiding any identity information. Moreover, their comments would not have any
impact on their educational outcomes.
During the session, students were encouraged to express their drawing, share their thoughts and
discuss ideas with their colleagues. Notes were taken of students’ discussion with analysis of
their comments. Drawings as well as free text comments were analysed by the author and a
colleague. Thematic analysis was conducted with development of subthemes and frequency of
highly reported themes. Each investigator analysed the drawings and notes independently,
themes identified and then compared till reaching a consensus.
Ethical consideration
Prior to start, ethical approval has been obtained from Suez Canal University Ethics committee.
The participants were informed about the purpose of the study and its relevance. Written
informed consent has been given and received from study participants. Only those who agreed
to be involved in the study were included. The drawings were anonymous, and participants were
informed that any information they included in the focus group would be treated with
confidentiality. However, students have the right to participate and withdraw themselves at any
time without any consequences on their learning progress.
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Figure 1 shows a sample of students’ graphic representation of their mentors’ perception
Role of the mentor
Further analysis of graphical representation, several roles were assigned to mentors arranged in
descending order of frequency as shown in table (1).
Table (1): Role assigned to mentors in frequency
Mentor role Frequency
1. Guidance for Portfolio submission 45%
2. Support (Academic and personal) 30%
3. Planning 15%
4. Facilitator 5 %
5. Help in reflection and self- development
5%
Table (1) shows roles assigned to mentors from students’ notes analysis where guidance of
portfolio was the most discussed theme then academic and personal support.
Positive
Perception
Negative
Perception
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Alkhadragy, R. (2021). Are you a mentor? A Qualitative study: Imago-graphic Students’ Mirror Views. Advances in Social Sciences Research
Journal, 8(3) 652-661.
657
5
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.83.9931
Expectations from mentors
Further analysis during focus group on students expectations from their mentors revealed three
main themes, emerged from analysis from students’ drawings (Figure 2)
Ø Step by step help in portfolio submission
Ø Directive in development
Ø Evaluative and assigning grades
Figure 2
Figure (2) Expectations from mentors: graphical representation
DISCUSSION
The origin of the word mentor was from Greek in the mid-eighteenth and was referred to the
name of the friend Odysseus assigned as a trusted adviser to his son in his absence [13]. In
medical education, a mentor may have many roles, for example, supervisor, teacher, facilitator
or a coach [14]. Having a good mentor in early career life can shape students’ experience and
impact positively on their future performance and the reverse also applies. Hence, faculty has to
exert efforts in enhancing their staff capabilities and mentorship skills. This was supported by
many studies that once appointed mentors; they should receive some form of training that fulfils
the requirements of their role and in delivering effective feedback [15-17].Therefore, this study
was conducted aiming at evaluating students’ perception of their mentors in early life career and
nurturing the expected skills in developed mentorship programs.
Qualitative study using a simple graphical representation of how students perceive their mentors
in a safe permissive environment was selected. As Martí & Pozo (2000) indicate, graphic
representation is another way of understanding reality and visual media are a way of supporting
the written word [18].So, we collected the graphical representation from our students and
further analysis of their perception were discussed in the focus group.
Students’ perceptions were ranged between positive and negative ones, where positive were
mainly in line with agreed upon previous research on what makes a good mentor and the
benefits of mentorship programs; contribution to academic success, planning for career
development were predominantly supported by our students and in agreement with other
studies [19,20]. Moreover, in similar studies, students expressed that guidance and support
provided by their mentors enhanced their professional development, and a systematic review
revealed that mentorship empowers the development of professional attributes and
competencies [21,22]. However, in other studies they reported that the mentorship bridges the
gap between theory and practice, increases their critical thinking, and the willingness to take
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risks, which were not even mentioned by our students. This could be due to the fact that this was
just a perception of mentors from students’ point of view. Also, this was the first mentorship
session and students haven’t yet been fully immersed in mentorship experience and witnessed
these benefits.
On the other hand, students’ negative perceptions were concerned with humiliation, criticism
and assigning grades of their performance. These concerns may be fears of the experience or
chaos communicated from some peers who had bad experiences. Similar negative findings were
reported in other studies with students highlighting aspects of harassment, abusive language,
rudeness and tribalism [23]. However, these concerns should not be passed unnoticed and
encouragement and support should be given to students and directions towards how to refer
their concerns to the trusted staff to promote a secure learning environment.
One of the debatable topics in mentorship literature is the mentor role; our students' responses
had focused on the guidance for portfolio submission, and then came the role of support at levels
personal and professional, then planner for their career. The latter had been drawn as a mentor
holding a stick paving the way to students for their career development (in figure 1). Meanwhile,
less reported roles were: facilitator and helper in reflection and self-development. In similar
studies, participants highlighted the following roles; giver of information, advisor, teacher,
supervisor, guidance, motivator, advisor, role model and coach [19, 24] while counsellors, role
models, and coaches roles were prominent in other studies [25].
Mentors' backgrounds have not came across in our focus group discussions and we can refer that
our study participants’ are students in pre-clinical years and this was extensively discussed in
previous research mainly in clinical mentorship experience. As clinical background supports
reflection, however, knowledge about reflection and how to apply this especially in mentoring
students' portfolios will be sufficient [26]. Moreover, early career specialists and more senior
and experienced mentors were also tackled in previous research and reported that junior
mentors can have a great impact on mentees, while more senior mentors can be highly valued by
mentees [27, 30].
Last, from students’ expectations from their mentors, we can conclude the basic skills leading to
effective mentorship. In our context mentors were concerned with portfolio submission, and a
concurrent study was conducted and reported that the implemented mentorship program has a
positive impact on portfolio. This is why our students had a great expectation in step by step
mentors’ help in their portfolio submission. This was supported by students' responses who
agreedthat their mentors assisted them in understanding the portfolio, following their fulfilment
of all the portfolio inputs and improving the final product of the portfolio [12]. Additionally,
two qualitative studies have indicated that the learning effects of compiling a portfolio and
interacting with a mentor are hard to separate [31-33]. Moreover, Open communication and
accessibility were frequently reported expectations in other studies, caring personal
relationships, mutual respect and trust were reported as well [34]. Meanwhile, clinical and
technical competence, positive relationships with students, effective communication skills, and
enthusiasm were listed in other studies as skills and competences of a good and effective mentor
[35].