The objective of this paper was to review literature about near-peer mentoring programs for first-year medical students. “A near-peer is one who is one or more years senior to another on the same level of education training, that is, learners providing pastoral support to other learners in contrast to faculty staff mentoring learners” (2) Across the five papers in the review, three outcomes were summarized: personal and professional development, transitioning and stress reduction. For personal and professional development, 72.5% mentees reported much improvement working on a team; 61.2% reported greater respect towards themselves and mentors; 58% said they were more accountable about schoolwork; and 100% said they improved their “professionalism” skills. For transitioning, some of the studies showed support that mentoring programs helped in the transition phase of medical school. For stress reduction, some studies showed near-peer mentoring programs helped build resilience and be less stressed.

Annotation by Eric Hall