Mentorship and Human Interaction: an ongoing training experience in a medical course

Introduction: Pedagogical mentoring, widely used in healthcare courses, is a training resource based on the interaction between teachers and students. Through mentoring, an experienced professional guides beginners in their development. The literature on mentoring in medical education tells us that it is an important means for the training of future physicians, as it offers personal support in clarifying doubts related to academic life and enables discussions about aspirations caused by the future professional life, supporting the development of basic relational skills for the practice of medicine. Objectives: (a) Provide an overview of the bibliography regarding mentoring as a pedagogical intervention in medical courses; (b) Present a qualitative-quantitative documentary research that evaluated, from the students' perspective, a group mentoring experience developed in a medical training course at a private college located in the interior of São Paulo. Methodology: Documentary analysis research. The object of analysis was an evaluation promoted by the Academic Center of the Institution, in November 2019, through questionnaires with closed and open questions, answered online by students from the 1st to the 4th year of the medical course who participated in the mentoring process. It was investigated whether the Mentoring Program developed contributed to the students' adaptation to the university environment and to facing difficulties specific to the course and whether, as a support to the curricular structure, it enabled better integration and proximity between teachers and students. Discussion and Results: The answers to the questionnaires were tabulated and, once organized, formed the following categories of analysis: (1) experience with mentoring as a whole; (2) experience with the mentoring group; (3) importance of mentoring for one's own training; (4) suggestions and criticisms, Thus, the results showed that the development of empathy, communication and listening skills, stimulated by the exchange of experiences between students and Mentor/Mentor jr. are extremely important and recommended for the development of the humanistic side of the doctor. The profile of the mentor is important, because the characteristics mentioned above depend on the support, care, guidance offered by the mentor to the students during the meetings. Conclusions: The feeling of support generated in the student will reflect in their attitudes in academic settings and in health units, consolidating in them a more active listening and empathy towards those they will serve in the future. This study aims to disseminate the experience, which we believe is relevant to the improvement of medical education in the country, especially with regard to the human interactions involved in the doctor-patient encounter.