A cross-sectional descriptive study of mentoring relationships formed by medical students.

To describe medical students' mentoring relationships and determine characteristics associated with having mentors, 232/302 (77%) of third- and fourth-year medical students at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) were surveyed. Twenty-six percent of third-year and 45% of fourth-year students had mentors. Most met their mentors during inpatient clerkships (28%), research (19%), or sought them on the basis of similar interests (23%). On multivariate analysis, students who performed research prior to (odds ratio [OR], 4.8; 95% confidence interval [95% CI], 1.4 to 16.7; P =.01) or during medical school (OR, 2.4; 95% CI, 1.1 to 5.6; P =.03) and students satisfied with advising from all sources at UCSF (OR, 1.8; 95% CI, 1.4 to 2.4; P <.001) were more likely to have mentors.