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Mentoring Programs

Medical students have access to a number of formal and informal faculty, administrative, and peer mentors from the beginning of their first year. Mentors provide students with guidance on personal and professional development, academic counseling, and career planning. The diverse and redundant system of advisors helps students by proactively anticipating challenges and promoting balance. A fundamental UConn tenet is that students must maintain their humanity in order to become successful physicians. The mentoring program that assures student success includes:

Administrative Mentoring

1. The Office of Medical Student Affairs. The administrative staff, faculty and deans in the student affairs help coordinate all aspects of medical student activities and advising. The office adheres to a true open-door policy, to foster a rapid response to student needs through unscheduled and scheduled appointments.

2. The Associate Dean for Medical Student Affairs is charged with following the progress of each student, and with coordinating all other components of student mentoring. The associate dean is available for all types of counseling, serving also to triage students to other advisors with specific expertise as appropriate. He/she is also responsible for providing a comprehensive written evaluation of students' overall performance, the Medical Student Performance Evaluation, in the fourth year as part of the residency application.

3. The Assistant Dean for Medical Student Affairs/Assistant Dean for Admissions serves as the primary coordinator/advisor for student research programs and has an essential complementary role to the associate dean as a medical student advisor. The assistant dean is responsible for distributing research funds and administering the Fifth-Year Enrichment Program, designed to foster student exposure to clinical and basic science research.

4. The Dean for Academic Affairs and Education is available primarily for academic advising.

5. The Associate Dean, Director of Health Career Opportunity Programs, is responsible for advising and counseling underrepresented minority students.

6. The Director of the M.D./Ph.D. Program provides comprehensive academic counseling for the combined-degree students.

7. The Director of Community-Based Education serves as the primary coordinator for community education and clinical research opportunities in the United States and international locations.

Faculty Mentoring

1. In 2005, the new Academic Mentor Program was introduced for first- and second-year medical school students. Academic mentoring groups are designed as follows:

• Groups of ten students are assigned to two faculty members. One with a basic science orientation and expertise, and the other with a clinical background.

• Groups meet early in each academic year to discuss expectations, and then decide frequency of subsequent meetings to address essential topics, such as:

  • How to change the paradigm from studying/cramming for tests to learning material and skills to become a lifelong student.
  • Strategies for exam preparation.
  • Professional issues as they arise, and also proactively discussing topics such as, honor code expectations, confidentiality of patient material, attendance at teaching sessions, preparing for conferences, etc. The goal is for students to take on professional attitudes and behaviors early in their training.
  • Managing stress and creating balance by reinforcing the need for exercise, diet, sleep, recreation, etc.
  • Focusing on the meaning and purpose of their education to become physicians.
  • Helping students make the choices available to them such as, participating in interest groups, summer research abroad programs or specific specialty opportunities.

• Students can turn to one of their mentors with questions and issues relating to academic or other difficulties.

• Academic mentors can refer students to other mentors, administrators, course leaders and the associate dean for Student Affairs as needed.

2. Course Leaders serve as a first line of academic advisors for students who are not meeting expectations. Course leaders address student needs and facilitate referrals to appropriate academic resources, such as faculty and student tutors, administrators and psychological counselors.

3. Faculty in the basic science and clinical medicine courses are an invaluable resource for students. UConn has a longstanding policy of faculty accessibility and collegiality, fostered through office-hours, optional review sessions and course critiques, among others.

Peer Mentoring

1. There has been a formal student "big brother/big sister" program in place since the early 1990’s. First-year students are randomly assigned to a second-year student during orientation. The big brother's/big sister's function is to ease the transition to medical school by providing invaluable social and academic support.

2. The Peer Support Group are trained volunteer students, under the direction of faculty advisor Debra Johnson, A.P.R.N. Peer Support is a program to provide social and emotional support, along with encouragement and direction. The team members assist other students to: decrease stress levels, problem solve, and/or seek appropriate Health Center or community resources as needed.

3. The Honor Board is a student-run organization charged with reviewing, upholding, and revising (if necessary) the student honor code. The faculty advisor is Roger Thrall, Ph.D. Students can confidentially approach board members to discuss perceived breaches in the honor code. The board can decide whether the code has been breached, and has the responsibility for formally investigating, bringing charges, and determining violations. The Honor Board has the authority to act alone, and can bring in the faculty advisors and administrators at their discretion.

4. "Your First Patient" Retreat. In 2005, second-year medical students took the lead in designing a half day retreat for new students during the first week of medical school with self-care as the theme. Small group topics included personal balance, stress reduction and relaxation exercises, building and maintaining relationships, and an introduction to Greater Hartford cultural resources. The second-year students followed-up with a second half day retreat in November. The topics were balancing studies with family and friends, effective study techniques, and the benefits of group study/review of basic science material. The retreats have been integrated into the academic calendar.