Peer-mentoring between Medical and Nursing students: a pilot project

ABSTRACT Peer-mentoring promotes, through a horizontal bond among students, the development of skills related to autonomy, self-assurance, and personal management in studies and daily life. A pilot project of interprofessional peer-mentoring was developed at Escola Superior de Ciências da Saúde (ESCS) aiming to facilitate the academic transition for medical and nursing students. This exploratory and descriptive study, with a qualitative approach, describes how the ESCS Mentoring Project was implemented in 2022 and investigates the sociodemographic profile of the participants, in addition to analyzing their perceptions about the experience. Undergraduate students from the medicine and nursing courses who participated in the 2022 edition as mentors (seniors) and mentees (freshmen) constitute the study sample. In total, there were 14 medical mentors and 1 nursing mentor, along with 7 medical and 6 nursing mentees. The predominant profile corresponds to female students, with a mean age of 23 years, from the Federal District and living with family members. Biweekly meetings were held in small mixed groups, besides monthly meetings involving all participants to discuss topics of collective interest. Mentors and mentees stated that mentoring provided a mutually supportive environment and offered valuable insights for their education. Additionally, mentoring facilitated integration between the courses and allowed an exchange of experiences that anticipates future teamwork, promoting the understanding of different professional roles and reinforcing the importance of interprofessional collaboration. The main challenges reported were the difficulty in scheduling biweekly meetings and the small participation of senior nursing students. The extension project was successful and confirms that peer-mentoring is an important tool in welcoming incoming students and adapting them to the higher education context. The remaining challenge is to find a mentoring format (virtual, in-person, hybrid) at ESCS aiming to reinforce participation and proximity between students whose courses operate on different campuses, with demanding and distinct curriculum schedules.