GP Trainee Peer Mentorship Programme

Near peer mentoring allows senior trainees volunteer to provide mentorship to first year trainees. In this context mentoring is a development process which benefits both mentor and mentee.

Why get involved?

Clinicians who have been mentored are more motivated, resilient, have better developed professional identities and feel better supported in their jobs than doctors without mentors. Doctors have found that volunteering to act as a mentor helps to:

• gain confidence and job satisfaction
• improve their working relationships
• enhance their problem-solving ability
• increase their sense of collegiality
• assist them in their career choice. 

The experience confers benefits to the mentors in the development of active learning skills, personal development, job satisfaction, problem solving abilities and leadership skills.

Mentor Matching

Mentor matching, and agreement with mentor and mentee "contracts" are arranged through a dedicated zone on Moodle. The supporting structures give boundaries and safety to the relationship. Mentees will be able to seek mentorship from their scheme mentors only.

Mentorship Meetings

Trainees are encouraged to hold their mentorship meetings via videoconferencing software embedded within Moodle. This frames the meeting as a formal mentorship meeting, with sufficient flexibility and capacity to be a good resource. Meetings will not be recorded. The meetings are confidential to the mentor-mentee relationship, as described in both contracts.Mentors formally agree to provide up to six video-conferenced meetings to their mentees in the year, each meeting recommended to last 20-30 minutes.

Mentor Guidance

The mentor guidance is recommended to cover the following areas:

• Information on local clinical placements – what learning outcomes are best targeted in which rotations. Tips on how to succeed in the clinical placement, e.g. clinical staff who tend to be helpful, how best to access help.
• Orientation to day release – tips on how to prepare presentations. Suggestions on resources.
• Drawing attention of their mentee to the national trainee handbook. Pointers to best chapters to use in particular phases of training.
• Help with ICGP EPA. Explanation of growth mindset learning. Tips on how to improve feedback. Assistance with recording.
• Explanation of the CPC processes. 
• Advise on navigating and populating the national ePortfolio, when it is implemented.

Each mentor can assist up to three mentees at a time. Upon completion of their training to be a mentor, the time commitment consists of about 10 hours of volunteered time per year.

Documents

Peer mentor agreement 2023 (PDF, 115KB)