Students, tutors and relationships: the ingredients of a successful student support scheme

Background Medical students suffer from stress and psychological morbidity. Much of this stress is related to uncertainty about course work and worklo ad. Although several student support systems are on offer at various medica l schools, few have been shown to meet the needs of students. Objective To evaluate one student support scheme and determine the factors which are essential for success. Method A total of 144 second- and third-year medical students were randomly selected at the University of Dundee. They were asked to complete question naires regarding contact with their personal tutors, frequency of meetings, activities during meetings, opinions on how to improve the system and how satisfied they were with the present system. In addition 28 tutors were als o asked to complete a questionnaire which matched as far as possible that f or students. Qualitative data was collected from semi-structured interviews , free-text responses from questionnaires, email communications with studen t group representatives and telephone interviews. Results The scheme was rated as successful or very successful by 25 (18.4%) students and five (29.4%) tutors. A high success rating was associated wit h regular and frequent meetings, with tutors actively seeking their student s and taking part in social as well as academic activities. Conclusions The relationship that is formed between students and tutors is the most important factor contributing to the success of the scheme. Taking part in social activities encourages the relationship to develop, whilst a ddressing academic problems helps to meet the needs of students. Those stud ents who fail exams appear to have the same needs as those who pass.