West Yorkshire Mentor Scheme: teaching and development.

BACKGROUND: The West Yorkshire Mentoring Scheme (WYMS) was created to provide a framework for clinical supervision, teaching and support by foundation year (FY) doctors for final-year medical students. Although established literature highlights the benefits of near-peer teaching, the accompanying mentoring role has little been explored. This study explored the impact of the WYMS for FY doctors and final-year medical students.

METHOD: FY1 mentors were individually paired with fifth-year medical students from the University of Leeds. The scheme aims to provide support, teaching and skills development for both mentors and mentees, as students rotate through clinical placements and assistantships. At the end of each academic year, FY1s and medical students are invited to complete an online questionnaire to highlight their experiences. These data were used to explore the impact of the scheme, and thematic analysis was employed to determine the results.

RESULTS: Forty-nine medical students and 122 FY1s responded: 98 per cent of mentors and 100 per cent of mentees would recommend the scheme to their peers. Thematic analysis demonstrated that the scheme proved useful in skills development, teaching supervision and increasing preparedness for work.

DISCUSSION: WYMS is well received, beneficial and an excellent, local adjunct to clinical placements. It is of significant value to final-year students and their FY mentors, assisting in the development of student assistantships and clinical placement design. For FY doctors, it is a rewarding scheme that develops essential attributes of time management, communication and leadership for mentors and for the junior doctors who organise the scheme.