Mentoring Nursing and Healthcare Students

David Kinnell, Philip Hughes

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN: 9781847873262, 9781847873255
• eBook ISBN: 9781446244067
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Nursing

"This key text offers mentors and students an insight into the relationship between mentorship theory, policy and practice." - Diane Tofts, Kings College London

What does effective mentoring mean in actual practice? How can I be a good mentor?

This book answers these questions and is designed to offer nursing and healthcare students a foundation in effective mentoring. Chapters examine the roles and responsibilities of the mentor, and how they enhance the process of mentorship. By examining the relevant competencies and knowledge base, the book provides an essential framework for developing the practice skills needed for successful mentoring.

Key features include:

- Embedded in real-life practice and case study examples

- Offers tips for successful mentoring and reflects upon likely challenges

- Features a range of interactive study activities linked to the student and mentor?s experiences

- Presents the most up-to-date professional guidance

- Includes running themes of reflective practice; evidence-based practice and multi-professional working.

Mentoring Nursing & Healthcare Students will help both the mentor and the student to develop the skills needed for effective collaboration. It is the core text for mentor preparation and mentor update courses in nursing, midwifery and allied health.

1

Mentoring nursing and
healthcare students

David Kinnell

Introduction

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In contemporary healthcare, there is a need to appreciate the importance of the interprofessional partnership that exists between nurses, midwives and other health professions. In higher education institutes, healthcare students from nursing, midwifery and other allied professions are encouraged to explore the patient’s healthcare journey and all those involved in its various stages. A number of different healthcare personnel may be involved throughout that patient’s healthcare journey, nevertheless, it is important to appreciate the roles and responsibilities of all those involved. Throughout this chapter an overview of the development and implementation of the mentor’s roles and responsibilities will be explored and how they can assist healthcare students appreciate the patient’s experience by sharing and imparting the knowledge, skills and professional attitudes that they have developed during their own professional career.

The development of mentorship

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In the NHS Next Stage Review (NSR) for England (DH, June 2008) Lord Darzi stated that quality is the organizing principle for all health services and summarized the challenges being faced as:

• rising patient expectations;
• demographic changes leading to new demands on healthcare system;
• the continuing development of the ‘information society’;
• advances in treatments;
• the changing nature of disease;
• changing expectations of the health workplace. (NHS Connecting for Health, 2009: 6)

This summarizes a contemporary approach to healthcare delivery that all nurses, midwives and allied professions have to acknowledge in order to improve the ‘quality’ of experience that patients are exposed to. So not only have healthcare professionals a duty to respond to changes in the National Health Service, they should also have a commitment to nurse education. Mentorship is the process that allows the transference of knowledge, skills and attitudes from health professionals to the students that they are working with.

It may be interesting for some mentors to understand how the role has evolved and the various definitions and connotations that have attributed to what has become a vital, supportive and educational role. Mentoring has for the past 15 years been high on the agenda for the consistency in the preparation and support of healthcare students.Allan et al. (2008) trace the historical development of the mentorship role and how the relationship has evolved in response to how the students’ role in the practice setting has changed since the 1970s. Indeed, students were then the main care givers and by doing so, learnt from hands-on experience.

Moores and Moult (1979) estimated 75% of direct care used to be given by students in the 1970’s and trained nurses taught and students learned while they worked (Fretwell, 1982); at least until the curriculum reforms of the 1980’s and the introduction of supernumerary practice for students with the Project 2000 curriculum. (Allan et al., 2008: 546)

The introduction of the Project 2000 programme in the early 1990s emphasized how important the mentor was within nurse education and for ensuring the importance of relating theory to practice.The role and importance of the mentor within practice placements have continued to develop and become highly respected by healthcare students. The mentor guides the student and hopefully shares with them their knowledge and skills that they have acquired so the student can benefit from their experiences.

The aim of this professional relationship is to facilitate and enhance the student’s learning, as the more able they are, the more effective the transition from student to professional will be, ensuring their fitness for practice at the point of registration (Moore, 2005).This also acknowledges their new career which will hopefully allow them to be able to support and prepare other healthcare students on their journey to qualification. This applies to all nursing, midwifery and allied professions, therefore the generic term ‘healthcare student’ will be used throughout in order to reflect the interprofessional approach to learning that is encouraged in practice placements in today’s healthcare provision service.

Although the aim of this book is to adopt a contemporary concept, the idea of mentorship has its origins in Greek literature (see Box 1.1).

Box 1.1 Historical account of the origins of mentorship

In Greek literature it is written in Homer’s Odyssey, according to Morton-Cooper and Palmer (2000), that ‘Mentor’, the son of Alimus, was assigned by Ulysses to be a tutor-adviser to look after his son Telemachus, whilst he was away fighting the Trojan wars on behalf of his kingdom.

Ulysses was away far longer than anticipated so Mentor had a great deal of influence on Telemachus’ education and upbringing.

The correlation is that the important and valued role of contemporary mentors ensures that they also help to educate and guide the student throughout their practice placement experiences.

This brief summary shows that mentorship is not a new phenomenon. Mentor came to mean and be synonymous with ‘wise and trusted one’. So important was this that in ancient history, the Roman army adopted mentors to develop their soldiers. Mentorship and mentoring seemed to experience a revival in the 1980s in American literature and later in the UK, being associated with business, education and nursing. Also related is the association of adult developmental psychology and its influence within healthcare delivery wherever there is a holistic approach to care and understanding of the person. Within healthcare the patients’ physical status is important, particularly when there is an altered health state when this is often the reason why they are receiving care services. However, in contemporary healthcare a more concerted effort is also made to value who the person is (their psychology) and their social background (sociology). Mentors are often involved in helping the student to establish how theoretical concepts help to understand the reality of the interrelatedness of these three aspects of individuality (NMC, 2008b).

The term ‘mentor’ was connected with adult developmental psychology and the controversial yet well-known research undertaken by Levinson, Darrow, Klein, Levinson and McKee in 1978. Levinson et al. focused their research on The Seasons of a Man’s Life, highlighting the importance of different time spans in an adult man’s development.Their main contribution to the knowledge base was the concept of time spans or eras that represented a period of stable development (referred to as structure building) and transitional phases (or structure changing) (Gross, 2005).

The advantage of Levinson et al.’s (1978) contribution was the notion of a holistic appreciation of the person.The predominant influence was the interaction between biological influences and social experiences resulting in the psychological status of the person. However, the experiences developed from family and work contributions are paramount to life structure and the growth of individuality.Adult developmental psychology is inf luenced by experiences gained at different phases lasting approximately five years. Levinson et al. contribute to mentorship because, according to their theory, a mentor was someone older and wiser who capitalized on their structure building experiences and offered valued contributions to a younger person.This is a concept that has value to healthcare, for nursing, midwifery and the allied professions.

In 1999, the United Kingdom Central Council for Nursing, Midwifery and HealthVisiting (UKCC) responded to criticisms regarding the Diploma in Nursing Programme which indicated that students on registration were ‘too academic’ and not ‘very practical’. So, in response to this criticism, the UKCC commissioned Sir Leonard Peach to undertake an independent investigation in order to identify to what extent the concerns were justified. The resultant document Fitness for Practice (UKCC, 1999) was not as critical as anticipated. One of the recommendations of the Peach Report was that ‘universities and care providers should collaborate to offer nursing students seamless learning opportunities based on the UKCC’s existing principles of competence and knowledge acquisition’ (Sines et al., 2006: 28).

Contrary to anticipated negative responses, there were a number of determinants that actually enhanced the effectiveness of students achieving fitness for practice at the point of registration (see Box 1.2). Throughout their basic nurse training, mentors are collectively a valued influence in ensuring that the healthcare student is achieving what is expected of them, in correlation with the specific training programme and level of training. The determinants identified are an added perspective.

Box 1.2 Key determinants for achieving fitness for practice at the point of registration

• Implementation of a host trust concept, whereby nursing students are sponsored by dedicated trusts for most of their education programmes.
• Confirmation of learning outcomes at the end of the common foundation programme and determination of standards of proficiency for entry to the register at the end of the branch programme.
• The duration of the common foundation programme was subsequently reduced from 18 to 12 months.
• The development of new partnership models of practice, including multi-professional learning opportunities. (Sines et al., 2006)

Mentors now have to be aware of the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement (2006) NHS Leadership Qualities Framework. This NHS framework identifies fifteen qualities that range from personal, cognitive, and social quality attributes.These attributes are further segmented into three clusters: personal qualities, setting direction and delivering the service. From the mentor’s perspective this framework helps the professional to reflect on their own mentorship skills and to evaluate how they are effectively meeting the qualities highlighted by the NHS Institute. Included within the specific ‘personal qualities’ variables is ‘personal integrity’ which identifies the need for mentors to act as a role model and have the motivation to continue with developing the service in response to contemporary healthcare needs.

Subsequently a variety of research studies have been undertaken to examine the benefits of the mentor’s role. Irrespective of the research approach undertaken, results generally reveal that there is no doubt that the mentor plays an important role in the student’s placement experience. Myall et al. (2008) explored the reality of contemporary mentorship and to what extent the initial ideological concepts made an impact in practice. Although the research involved a number of different strategies, the results emphasized the importance of mentorship within contemporary healthcare (see Box 1.3).

Box 1.3 Summary of some of the benefits associated with mentorship

• Mentors assist in the development of quality student placement experiences.
• Mentor is a source of support and helped students feel connected to the placement area.
• Students were welcomed to the practice environment, and treated as valid and legitimate learner.
• Mentors help create opportunities to maximize students’ learning.
• Mentors help students to develop their practical skills.
• Mentors felt mentorship provided the opportunity to provide clinical support to students and subsequently helped them to keep their own clinical skills up to date.
• Mentoring helps mentors to achieve a great sense of job satisfaction.
• Mentors felt ‘proud’ as they watched the student develop their knowledge, skills and professional attitudes. (Myall et al., 2008)

In the list of prerequisites for the role of mentor, the NMC (2008a) state that a qualified nurse should have at least 12 months full-time post-registration experience (or equivalent part-time). This appears to be a realistic and practical requirement. It is during this time that the newly qualified nurse will settle into and get to know their new professional role. Indeed, it is at this time that continued support is needed in the form of preceptorship (Morton-Cooper and Palmer, 2000).

‘The Nursing and Midwifery Council is the regulator for two professions: nursing and midwifery. The primary purpose of the NMC is to safeguard the health and wellbeing of the public’ (NMC, 2008a: 05). Therefore, whenever the NMC sets standards or issues new guidelines, they are using the procedure to involve nurses and midwives already recorded on the register, in order to gain feedback. These standards are usually in place for five years and reviewed as required. Ment...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List
• Introduction
• 1 Mentoring nursing and healthcare students
• 2 How can the mentor assist the student to become part of the healthcare team?
• 3 Facilitating the learning of healthcare students
• 4 Assessing healthcare students using a five-dimensional approach to assessment
• 5 Evaluating the effectiveness of mentorship
• 6 What makes an ‘effective’ placement for healthcare students?
• 7 The practice context in healthcare settings
• 8 Evidence-based practice and mentorship
• 9 Leadership: an integrated role within mentorship
• 10 The mentor’s experiences of mentorship
• References
• Index