Does the training of mentors increase the contact frequency and the quality of support in a portfolio-based teaching module?

Introduction: All over the world, mentors are employed more and more for portfolio-based training modules in order to support the learner’s learning- and reflection process. Within the final year of medical education, tertial internal medicine, the University Hospital of Erlangen, Department of Medicine 1 offered trainings for mentors. In the framework of the student’s evaluation of this training period it was asked whether and what kind of effect the mentor training has had on the contact frequency between mentor and student and whether it affects how students experience the mentor’s support. Methods: Since spring 2005, the Medizinische Klinik 1 held one-day-long mentor trainings, and in the following two years, about half of the medical staff attended. During the following four years, both trained and untrained mentors participated. At the end of the training section the students evaluated the contact to their mentor with a structured question form. The questions on the contact frequency and how the students experienced the support through the mentor were evaluated for the present study. 186 question forms were evaluated; 67 of them related to trained mentors. Result: One year after the first training, the students rated the trained mentor’s support significantly higher than the support by untrained mentors. There was a tendency noted, though not significant, for a higher contact frequency with the trained mentors. During the following three years, the measurable difference between the trained and untrained mentors regarding both items was not significant. In those years, a tendency towards a more intensive support of the students through all mentors was shown. Discussion: The evaluation results one year after the intervention imply that trained mentors can intensify their support for the students without requiring more time. The positive development of the evaluation results for both mentor groups during the following three years can be interpreted as a result of the process of exchange between trained and untrained mentors and readjustment among staff.