Practice Theoretical Assignment: The Role Of A Nursing Mentor
Multi-Professional Support of Learning and Assessing in Practice Theoretical Assignment
The Role of a Nursing Mentor
The design of this essay is to focus on two different aspects of mentorship in a nursing environment. Part one will focus on the role of a clinical mentor and part two will explain an assessment of a student nurse through the vision of a new mentor observing a clinical procedure undertaken by the student.
The aim is to cover the learning outcomes of the module and focus on current literature and evidence surrounding the topic of mentorship. The subject is well covered in literature regarding the role of a mentor. More often than not it focuses on the positivity of having a supportive mentor to assist the affective learning …show more content…
The reality of a busy nurse and a busy ward sometimes over rides what can actually be achieved. As mentioned previously about limited resources and demands of day to day duties, it becomes a realisation that sometimes a student/mentor relationship may not be as positive as we would hope. A ward environment is a very stressful area for a qualified nurse and negative feeling is somewhat an everyday issue. Of course the role of the mentor has been highlighted as someone to provide positive learning environments, but poor staffing, limited means and low morale is often a familiar trait. This is supported by (Bennett 2003) who …show more content…
This shortage of nurses may also contribute to the reluctance of assessors to fail students because staff shortages result in the amount of time that mentors are able to allocate to student assessments (Philips, et al 2000).Many of these limitations are through no fault of an individual nurse but are obstacles faced every day. The complexity of this mentor role is evident but it is believed if a professional nurse can balance their role to a student nurse and clinical care of patients it can be a success, ‘Mentors have a dual role, balancing the clinical care of patients with student assessment,’ (Harding and Greig, 1994). It does prove difficult though as the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s (NMC) Professional Code of Conduct, 2002 focuses primarily on the patient not the student is relation to accountability, which can sometimes then deem the student nurse assessment a low priority (Philip et al 2000). To summarise, it really does appear essential that if the mentor tries and balances professional responsibilities with a student nurse relationship it can avoid any problems on both
The Role of a Nursing Mentor
The design of this essay is to focus on two different aspects of mentorship in a nursing environment. Part one will focus on the role of a clinical mentor and part two will explain an assessment of a student nurse through the vision of a new mentor observing a clinical procedure undertaken by the student.
The aim is to cover the learning outcomes of the module and focus on current literature and evidence surrounding the topic of mentorship. The subject is well covered in literature regarding the role of a mentor. More often than not it focuses on the positivity of having a supportive mentor to assist the affective learning …show more content…
The reality of a busy nurse and a busy ward sometimes over rides what can actually be achieved. As mentioned previously about limited resources and demands of day to day duties, it becomes a realisation that sometimes a student/mentor relationship may not be as positive as we would hope. A ward environment is a very stressful area for a qualified nurse and negative feeling is somewhat an everyday issue. Of course the role of the mentor has been highlighted as someone to provide positive learning environments, but poor staffing, limited means and low morale is often a familiar trait. This is supported by (Bennett 2003) who …show more content…
This shortage of nurses may also contribute to the reluctance of assessors to fail students because staff shortages result in the amount of time that mentors are able to allocate to student assessments (Philips, et al 2000).Many of these limitations are through no fault of an individual nurse but are obstacles faced every day. The complexity of this mentor role is evident but it is believed if a professional nurse can balance their role to a student nurse and clinical care of patients it can be a success, ‘Mentors have a dual role, balancing the clinical care of patients with student assessment,’ (Harding and Greig, 1994). It does prove difficult though as the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s (NMC) Professional Code of Conduct, 2002 focuses primarily on the patient not the student is relation to accountability, which can sometimes then deem the student nurse assessment a low priority (Philip et al 2000). To summarise, it really does appear essential that if the mentor tries and balances professional responsibilities with a student nurse relationship it can avoid any problems on both