While doing the final-year MPharm student project, I observed and evaluated an International Student Experience Programme (ISEP). This peer-mentoring scheme was designed to support students from China Pharmaceutical University to study in an articulate BSc Clinical Pharmacy Programme at the University of Manchester. 

To help student mentors better perform in leading each session, our academic staff arranged a core skill training session for them on 16th February 2022. Thirteen mentors participated and were allocated to small groups with 4-5 people in each.  

At the beginning of the training, mentors were involved in an icebreaker game which helped them get to know each other and break the awkwardness. We were surprised that many mentors had not met their peers even though they were in the same year group. This might be due to the pandemic lockdown that made in-person socialisation impossible. After the icebreaking game, each group was assigned a question, and the team members would write down their ideas on a flip chart paper and give feedback to the rest of the group via open discussions and role-plays. 

Throughout the session, mentors iteratively emphasised the importance of building up student mentees’ sense of belonging. They unanimously agreed that people with similar cultural origins are more likely to connect well as they subconsciously think they are closer to one another. Therefore, they suggested mentors should show interest in their mentees and try to find things in common.  

They also suggested that standard English should be used during their meetings with mentees. At the same time, idioms or jargon should be avoided considering English is not the first language of the mentees. Moreover, mentors also suggested a careful use of body language since a specific gesture in one country can have a different meaning in another country. All these actions can help develop a stronger connection between mentors and mentees. 

I enjoyed the workshop training and also learned from it. This experience helped me to reflect on my study and clinical practice about how to work with diverse groups of co-workers and serve patients from different ethnicity and cultural backgrounds. 

Pol Donald Nkana Nkana , MPharm alumnus, Pre-registration Trainee Pharmacist at Cohens Chemist 

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