Introduction:

Mentoring at the Federal University of Minas Gerais Medical School started in 2001 in response to emotional difficulties reported by students, but was preceded by an experimental project based on the aid model in 1983.

Experience report and discussion:

Many challenges have been faced from the outset, from appreciating and understanding the purpose of the program, to ensuring the participation of and maintaining mentors, in addition to a curricular change that occurred in this period. In response to these challenges, some solutions have been proposed, such as continuing education and supervision for mentors, the creation of co-mentoring and undergraduate course monitoring, with the junior mentor and the search for volunteer mentors. New challenges arise every day, but the mentoring program is now twenty years’ old as a compulsory subject of the medicine course. Mentoring currently has difficulties that weaken and threaten it, especially its dependence on the personal effort of a group of professionals who believe in it.

Conclusion:

The diffusion of the concept of mentoring and its importance in medical training; the appreciation of teachers who are interested in the mentoring activity, with recognition of their work by the institution, and the continued training of mentors have been and continue to be necessary measures to strengthen mentoring.

        · abstract in Portuguese     · text in Portuguese     · Portuguese ( pdf )