Effects of Mentoring in First Year Medical Undergraduate Students using DASS-21

Introduction: Medical students often require high level of specialised institutional and personal support to facilitate success. Distress is commonly observed in medical undergraduate students which leads to poor academic performances. The stress though looks reasonable it needs to be addressed with right amount of counseling. A good mentoring session helps in reducing depression, stress and anxiety. Aim: To determine the effects of mentoring in first year medical students using Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale - 21 Items (DASS 21). Materials and Methods: It was an interventional study conducted in Seth GSMC, Department of Physiology, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, from July 2019 to February 2020. Total 120, first-year medical undergraduates were recruited in the study. At the beginning, an orientation session was conducted for the faculty. Mentoring sessions were conducted for students once in a week. Data was collected using DASS-21 in the beginning in July 2019 to February 2019. Statistical analysis was done using Wilcoxon sign rank test. Five-point Likert scale was used for qualitative analysis of the feedbacks received from mentors as well as mentees. The p-value <0.05 was considered as significant. Results: Out of 15 faculty members were eight were males and seven were females with mean age of 47±8 and 46±1 years, respectively. Among mentees, 64 were males and 56 were females with mean age of 17±8 and 17±6 years. A significant decrease was obtained in the levels of depression, anxiety and stress scores of students after mentoring. Wilcoxan sign rank sum test was used. The p-value before and after mentoring session was 0.00418 for Depression, 0.00033 for anxiety and 0.00805 for stress. Conclusion: Mentoring was found to reduce stress, anxiety and depression in first-year medical undergraduate students. The mentoring program was found to be useful to students as well as faculty. It should be extended through all the years of under graduation.