Introducing first-year students to medical school: experiences at the Faculty of Medicine of Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

A system, in which more advanced students provide guidance to small groups of first-year students with respect to the educational programme, problems students may encounter in studying medicine and with respect to the living circumstances associated with going to medical school, and which has been operating for 14 years, is described. Each group consists of ten first-year students and two advanced students, called mentors, and meets about once every fortnight to discuss questions that come up among the first-year students. The mentors receive some professional training in the field of group psychology. This system has now operated for 14 years, and therefore may be regarded as evidence that it meets real needs of students entering medical school.