How peer mentorship influences students' feelings of preparedness for their Level I clinical fieldwork in terms of confidence and competency

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of peer mentorship on students' feelings of preparedness for level I clinical affiliation in terms of confidence and competency. The researcher hypothesized that peer mentoring would provide students with a support system aimed at enhancing competency in professional development and fieldwork. A mixed research design was used for data collection and analysis. Ten occupational therapy students preparing for their first level I clinical experience were divided into two groups. Each group attended five focus group sessions that were conducted by two of their peers who had previous clinical experience. Each of the participants completed a pre and post evaluation using a likert-type questionnaire to determine her feelings of confidence and competency. Fieldnotes were taken from the focus group proceedings. Both the quantitative and qualitative data indicated an improvement in students'feelings of confidence and competency following the peer mentorship program. These results indicate that peer mentorship is an effective intervention strategy and may be useful as an educational tool