Exploring models, practice and strategies in mentorship within health professions education in the Southern African context: Short report

Abstract

Background. Despite benefits, structured mentorship needs to be better recognised within health profession training institutions (HPI) in Southern Africa (SA). Given the need to transform faculties and retain skilled personnel, mentoring programmes can be used to address these needs and warrant further exploration.

Objective. To explore mentorship models within HPI in SA.

Methods. During the annual South African Health Educationalists Conference (SAAHE) in 2022, five academics from HPIs in the region conducted an interactive national workshop on mentorship in health professions education. Following a presentation on mentorship models, participants were allowed to share their perspectives on current mentorship practices, gaps and recommendations for enhancing mentorship. Key concepts and themes generated are reported.

Results. Three key approaches to mentorship models were identified during the workshop. These were ‘top-down’, ‘ad-hoc’ and ‘supportive’ approaches. Mentorship models were largely self-initiated and followed a traditional dyadic style with little innovation. Mandatory ‘top-down’, over-regulated programmes compared with ‘grassroots’ approaches were the two extremes reflected on the spectrum of models. While the benefits of mentorship were recognised, institution-wide implementation is lacking, reflecting varied or no widescale adoption. Mentorship could serve as a focused, formal strategy to ensure the demographic transformation of HPIs. Recommendations were made to measure the effectiveness of mentorship programmes against academic promotion criteria and research outputs.

Conclusion. While mentorship is positively viewed as a means to ensure improved equity and outputs, practical implementation is lacking. Mentorship programmes require further exploration of models and processes to facilitate successful implementation.