Characteristics and quality assessment of online mentoring profile texts in academic medical mentoring

BMC Med Educ. 2023 Nov 9;23(1):849. doi: 10.1186/s12909-023-04804-1.

Abstract

Background: Mentoring is important for a successful career in academic medicine. In online matching processes, profile texts are decisive for the mentor-selection. We aimed to qualitatively characterize mentoring-profile-texts, identify differences in form and content and thus elements that promote selection.

Methods: In a mixed method study first, quality of texts in 150 selected mentoring profiles was evaluated (10-point Likert scale; 1 = insufficient to 10 = very good). Second, based on a thematic and content analysis approach of profile texts, categories and subcategories were defined. We compared the presence of the assigned categories between the 25% highest ranked profiles with the 25% lowest ranked ones. Finally, additional predefined categories (hot topics) were labelled on the selected texts and their impact on student evaluation was statistically examined.

Results: Students rated the quality of texts with a mean of 5.89 ± 1.45. 5 main thematic categories, 21 categories and a total of 74 subcategories were identified. Ten subcategories were significantly associated with high- and four with low-rated profiles. The presence of three or more hot topics in texts significantly correlated with a positive evaluation.

Conclusion: The introduced classification system helps to understand how mentoring profile texts are composed and which aspects are important for choosing a suited mentor.

Keywords: Medical mentoring; Online matching; Online mentoring profiles.

MeSH terms

  • Faculty, Medical
  • Humans
  • Mentoring* / methods
  • Mentors
  • Students, Medical*
  • Surveys and Questionnaires