Peer Mentorship Program in Dental Education

Abstract

The Senior Mentorship Program (SMP) was created to encourage the fourth year dental students to act as mentors inthe clinical environment as well as facilitate learning of clinic protocols and reinforce concepts in treatment planningfor the third year students. Third year dental students engaged in educational conversations and received helpfuladvice as they entered their clinical years. Fourth year students also benefited from the program by learning how tomentor and teach in an interactive learning environment. Teaching and mentoring can also help fourth year studentslearn the material more in depth as student teachers, while providing emotional and social support for their peerlearners. Third year students reported overwhelmingly positive experiences in the student satisfaction surveys. Themajority of students sought mentorship from the peer teachers in areas of Prosthodontics and Treatment Planning,followed by technical instructions on using the Electronic Health Records. The SMP appeared to be an effectiveeducational model to encourage peer-to-peer interaction and enhance learning in a critical period of clinicaleducation.