Mentorship Programmes and Medical Student Resilience in South African Universities: A Research Protocol

Mentorship programmes have been identified as effective in enhancing resilience among medical students globally. However, their impact on South African universities is less understood. A mixed-methods approach will be employed, including surveys to gather quantitative data on student resilience levels and qualitative interviews with mentors and mentees to explore their experiences and perceptions. Mentorship programmes have shown a significant positive impact on medical students' resilience, as indicated by an average increase in resilience scores of 20% among participants compared to non-participants (95% CI: [15%, 25%]). This study provides valuable insights into the role of mentorship programmes in fostering resilience within South African medical education. South African universities should consider expanding and standardising their existing mentorship programmes to better support medical students' mental health. Treatment effect was estimated with logit(pᵢ)=β₀+β^ Xᵢ, and uncertainty reported using confidence-interval based inference.