Introduction:

Mentoring programs have been strategies for improving the training of future doctors, covering aspects rarely contemplated in formal curriculum. This report discusses the teaching experience of mentoring for an undergraduate medicine class over the course of a six-year period (2014 to 2020).

Experience report:

The mentoring actions were planned every six months in a meeting between mentor and mentees. The eligible themes were chosen through brainstorming to converge on the main collective demands. The topics included, for example: The patient’s view of interaction with health students; The future of recently graduated doctors; Core skills of a doctor. The most frequently used tools were: Circle learning; Activities based on methodologies in small and large groups; Informal meetings with the whole class; Individual meetings; Formal and informal digital spaces. The actions were developed, over the six years, by the same teacher, which helped construct and consolidate the bond between mentor and mentees.

Discussion:

Mentoring was configured as a powerful strategy, conducted with flexibility to permeate the needs of students, directing them towards the individual and collective development of professionalism. Among the secondary gains, the stimulation of teacher development stands out, a condition that required receptivity to interaction and recognition of the learners’ experience.

Conclusion:

This experience demonstrated that the essence of mentoring is related to the connection and the preparation of humans to deal with humans, regardless of the social role they are playing.

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