The impact of mentoring on matriculation into physician assistant school

Abstract

Rationale: Mentoring, as a beneficial professional relationship for support, development, and advancement in academics and the workplace, has been studied in many fields, but not among physician assistants. Because this practice has well-documented benefits in other fields, it is can be used to advance the physician assistant profession especially with the growing need for primary care providers required by US health reform. Therefore, research on mentoring is needed to better understand if mentoring is occurring, appreciate the value of, and define mentoring within the physician assistant field. This descriptive study serves as a pilot study to determine if the previously investigated mentorship outcomes are translatable to students and soon to be professionals as physician assistants. The objectives of this study are to identify (1) the prevalence of physician assistant students who receive mentoring prior to matriculating into the professional phase of their physician assistant studies; (2) factors that influence a successful mentor-mentee relationship; (3) the influence that the relationship has on the pre-professional phase physician assistant student. We hypothesize that there will be a statistically significant relationship between a good mentor-mentee relationship and a willingness to mentor others in the future. [TRUNCATED]