The mentoring relationship dates back to prior to the invention of written language. There have been changes in its structure, but it has not lost the essence of promoting the development of the apprentice. Mentoring is a personalized learning process, in a dynamic relationship, which has great importance as a learning instrument in undergraduate courses and professional training. In medical education, it is positively related to scholarly support, career satisfaction, academic production and a reduced risk of burn-out. However, it is still limited by the small number of trained mentors, participants’ lack of time and lack of institutional support. This paper reviews the concepts of mentoring, the attributes of mentors and apprentices and their relationship, and assesses the importance, the expectations and the limitations of mentoring in medical education, especially in Brazilian public medical schools. A review of scientific articles on the PubMed database and published between 2005 and 2011 was performed, as well as other publications cited in the selected articles.
Preceptorship; Medical Education; Mentors; Orientation