About the Personal Advisor Network
The role
The personal advisor is a key point of contact and contributes to medical student support by:
- Encouraging an appropriate work-life balance, healthy behaviours and extra-curricular activities;
- Meeting at regular intervals to “check in” regarding academic progress and wellbeing;
- Offering positive support and encouragement;
- Providing guidance on adjusting to life as a medical student; and
- Recommending other input or support services should difficulties arise.
Personal advisors will typically have responsibility for one to three students from each year group, although some personal advisors may choose to have up to four students from a year group, with a maximum of 12 students across all four years.
We recommend that students and personal advisors meet around three times each year. Meetings can occur face-to-face, online (Microsoft Teams, Skype, Zoom etc.) or by phone. Some of the meetings may be held jointly with other students; however, students should have the opportunity to request individual meetings, as needed. We estimate that the time allocated to each student over a year is approximately three hours.
We do not expect personal advisors to know about the MD program or the curriculum in detail. It will, however, help to have a working knowledge of the program. Personal advisors are provided with an overview of the MD program and detailed advice regarding the support services available to students.