Nursing Mentorship Critical Reflection
The Nursing and Midwifery council (NMC) standards of proficiency for pre-registration nursing education (2010) sets out exactly what student nurses must achieve to enable registration onto the first part of the register. Another NMC publication; Standards to support learning and assessment in practice (2006) lays out what a post registration nurse requires to fulfil in order to formally assess student nurses. These two sets of standards make it clear what is expected of both students and mentors when learning in the clinical environment. This makes the process of mentoring sound simple, however, the reality of working on a busy ward coupled with staffing shortages and low morale makes this a complex and challenging task (Ref). As a post registered nurse with two years clinical experience I am well aware of the constraints and stresses on the other side in which nursing staff must work under. Despite this, mentoring is also a very rewarding aspect of nursing (Ref). As someone who has experienced highs and lows throughout my nurse training I promised myself that I would make every effort as a future mentor to make the learning experience in my company as positive and advantageous to my mentees as possible. To that end, this essay will be a critical reflection of my experience of mentoring a pre registration student nurse on a busy surgical ward. I will begin with a brief introduction to mentorship before covering my main topics which will be; The mentor student relationship, and the process of giving feedback. In order to maintain structure, reflect appropriately and learn from my experience I have chosen to use Gibbs model of reflection (Annex 1) to detail my experiences.
One of the recurring themes in preventing the development of a standard definition of good mentors, is the lack of coherent guidance on what mentors should be and should do or how they should behave (Clutterbuck 2004). Authors views of what makes a good mentor often conflict or at best
One of the recurring themes in preventing the development of a standard definition of good mentors, is the lack of coherent guidance on what mentors should be and should do or how they should behave (Clutterbuck 2004). Authors views of what makes a good mentor often conflict or at best
References: Ali, P.A. & Panther, W. 2008, Professional development and the role of mentorship, Nursing Standard, Vol. 22, no. 42, pp. 35-39. Andrews, M. & Wallis, M. 1999, Mentorship in nursing: a literature review, Journal of advanced nursing, Vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 201-207. Archer, J.C. 2010, State of the science in health professional education: effective feedback, Medical education, Vol. 44, no. 1, pp. 101-108. Arthur, M.B. 1985, Mentoring at Work: Developmental Relationships in Organizational Life, Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 30, no. 3, pp. 454-456. Bailey, M.E. & Tuohy, D. 2009, Student nurses’ experiences of using a learning contract as a method of assessment. Nurse education today, Vol. 29, no. 7, pp. 758-762. Ball, E.C. 2010, Annotation an effective device for student feedback: a critical review of the literature, Nurse Education in Practice, Vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 138-143. Bond, M. & Holland, S. (2010) Skills of Clinical Supervision for Nurses. 2nd Ed. Glasgow. Open University Press. Cahill, H.A. 1996, A qualitative analysis of student nurses ' experiences of mentorship, Journal of advanced nursing, Vol. 24, no. 4, pp. 791-799. Castledine, G., 2007 Tighter controls of student mentors may be problematic, British Journal of Nursing Vol.16 (5), p. 327 Clutterbuck, D., 2004 Mentor Competencies: A field perspective Gigante, J., Dell, M. & Sharkey, A. 2011, Getting Beyond Good Job: How to Give Effective Feedback, Pediatrics, Vol. 127, no. 2, pp. 205-207. Gill, P., Burnard, P., 2008 The student-supervisor relationship in the phD/Doctoral process. British Journal of Nursing. Vol. 17(10). Pp. 668-671. Hicks, B. 2011. Mentorship, training and skills. British Journal of Healthcare Assistants. 5 (6), 305. Hodges, B., 2009. Factors that could influence mentorship relationships. Paediatric Nursing. Vol. 21(6). Pp.32-35. LaFleur, A., K. & White, B., J. 2010, Appreciating mentorship: the benefits of being a mentor, Professional Case Management, Vol. 15, no. 6, pp. 305-313. Muldowney, Y. & McKee, G. 2011, Nurses new to intensive care: perceptions of their clinical learning environment, Nursing in critical care, Vol. 16, no. 4, pp. 201-209. Nursing and Midwifery Council (2006) Standards to Support Learning and Assessment in Practice. London. NMC. Nursing and Midwifery Council (2008) The code: Standards of conduct, performance and ethics for nurses and midwives. London. NMC. Nursing and Midwifery Council (2010) Standards for pre-registration nursing Education. London. NMC Ronsten, B., Andersson, E Dorion, N. 2011, Nursing mentorship programs: creating a culture of mentorship, SRNA Newsbulletin, Vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 27-27. Glenview, IL: Scott, F., Newstrom J. W., Davis K., 1997 Organizational Behavior: Human Behavior at Work. 10th Edition. McGraw-Hill: New York Huybrecht, S., Loeckx, W., Quaeyhaegens, Y., De Tobel, , Danielle & Mistiaen, W Papastavrou, E., Lambrinou, E., Tsangari, H., Saarikoski, M. & Leino-Kilpi, H. 2010, Student nurses [sic] experience of learning in the clinical environment, Nurse Education in Practice, Vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 176-182. Race, T.K. & Skees, J. 2010, Changing tides: improving outcomes through mentorship on all levels of nursing, Critical Care Nursing Quarterly, Vol. 33, no. 2, pp. 163-176. Wolak, E., McCann, M., Queen, S., Madigan, C. & Letvak, S. 2009, Perceptions within a mentorship program, Clinical Nurse Specialist: The Journal for Advanced Nursing Practice, Vol. 23, no. 2, pp. 61-67.