Mentors' and mentees' perspectives on mentoring competence and areas for improvement in postgraduate medical education - A cross-sectional study.

Purpose: A successful mentoring process and relationship require active engagement from both mentor and mentee. This study explored and evaluated the experiences, perceptions and associated factors of mentoring within postgraduate medical education from both mentors' and mentees' perspectives.

Materials and methods: The Mentors' Competence Instrument (MCI) was used to collect data in the three Wellbeing Service Counties in Finland. The cross-sectional survey yielded a total of 154 mentor and 79 mentee responses. Statistical analyses were conducted on the quantitative data, while the qualitative data were analysed using inductive content analysis.

Results: Statistically significant differences between the two groups were observed in Reflection during mentoring, Constructive feedback, and Learner-centred evaluation. The youngest mentees (under 31 years old) received the highest overall evaluations across all MCI sum variables. Areas for improvement were identified by the mentees in the structures and resourcing of mentoring, the quality of the mentoring relationship, the mentoring process, and the pedagogical competence of the mentors.

Conclusion: Mentees tended to evaluate the mentoring they received less positively than mentors assessed their own mentoring competence. Younger mentees appeared to rate their mentoring experience more favorably than older mentees. Mentees highlighted various aspects of mentoring that could benefit from further development.