Effective Mentorship and How This Contributes to the Learners Professional Development - Essay Example

? Mentorship al Affiliation: Introduction Mentorship refers to individual developmental relationship in which a person whois more knowledgeable helps those who are less experienced through guiding them. In this case, the individual who offers the mentoring services is referred to as a mentor. On the other hand, the individual who receives these services is referred to as a mentee. Mentoring therefore is a process of transmitting knowledge and psychological support from one individual to another. It is a process that usually involves communication and bases on relationship. In mentoring process, there are techniques that are known to be used. There are five most commonly used techniques. They are: 1. Accompanying: This refers to a technique where a mentor makes commitment in a caring manner. This technique involves corporation from both parties where the mentor takes part in the learning process hand-in-hand with the mentee. 2. Sowing: Mentors always face many challenges in their profession. At initial times, it is usually hard to note whether the mentees understand the knowledge being transferred to them. At this point, sowing is necessary as it is meant to show the mentees that the information transferred may have value to them at times when situation needs it. 3. Catalyzing: This is the third technique where a mentor forces the mentee to think differently. This is as a result of a situation where transformation reaches a critical point of pressure. 4. Showing: It is a technique where a mentor aims at making information that is being transferred to be understood to the mentee. In this case, using examples for demonstrations is an effective methodology to implement. 5. Harvesting: Here the mentor engages in asking questions to have a review of what the mentees have learnt and whether they have understood. Questions such, “What have you learnt?” and “How useful is it” are used in this technique. Techniques applied in mentoring process depend on the position of the mindset of the mentee. This essay will base on mentoring paramedic students. Paramedic is a term used to refer to a healthcare professional who works in situations of emergency under the medical field. Emergency cases here refer to situations where ambulances are used to take patients to hospital for fast attendance (William, 2012, 48). Paramedics, offers information on advanced point of emergencies in the medical field. Paramedic students therefore are individuals who are being trained to deal with emergency medical situations in their future lives. Mentoring paramedic students is a process meant to transfer information on emergency medical situations to students. In this case, mentees are students who are trained to handle emergency issues in their future lives. This gives a clear impression that students in this field train up to engage in a worth sacrificing time in order to make effective services. Healthcare is a sensitive field of operation in the contemporary society. This is basically because it involves individuals’ health conditions. The features that build up the society at large are the persons present therein. All the activities that take place in a society are controlled by human beings as their efforts are highly required to run them. This therefore means that human efforts are required and in order make them effective, healthy and strong people are needed. In this case, the health condition of individuals undertaking activities that help promote development of the economy has to be fit for those activities to be run smoothly. Training up paramedic students is an important undertaking as it involves bringing up individuals who will make certain that other persons in the society are fit health wise. This feature makes healthcare professional important people in the society. Healthcare mentors undertake helpful operations as they raise individuals who will offer assistance to others when in problems. Under this field mentees are students who aspire to be healthcare professional and especially under emergency situation field. With the emergency cases field there are many things to be put into consideration both by the mentors and the mentees. The mentors are in this case, sure that they are dealing with a sensitive matter and that they have to make certain that the mentees get to understand all that they are told. The mentees on the other hand, have to take their mentorship classes important because they are being trained to become great people in their future lives. Haly is the researcher who provides information on how paramedics can contribute to self-care. This is achieved by ensuring that patients who have been under treatment for some time and need support in order to carry out activities are helped out properly. This includes making them engage in activities that help them regain strength and precisely making them engage in simple activities alone so that they can boost their getting better (Haly, 2012, 22-27). Paramedic students have to acquire all skills required to handle emergency cases. This is supposed to help them so that when they are at work, they are able to help patients out even at worst situations. This is why they have to know of all the applications necessary in the field for effective service offer. Emergency medical cases have many applications to be implemented because with different cases there are various ways of treatment and different types of medicine to give to patients. At this point, a mentee is supposed to make certain that all knowledge transmitted is clear and that they are conversant with all applications to avoid inconveniences. (Percival, 2012, 34-40). William explains about using ultrasound in ambulances and having committed workers who are ready to attend to patients at any given time. This is majorly because emergency cases needs a lot of commitment as such cases should be attended to immediately to help patients not to move from bad conditions to worse. Students as well should be focused so that they can be in a position to contribute to clinical development by making sure that when they get jobs, they offer effective services (Catterall, 2012, 50-54). Brady points out that it is better to have a patient dying in the hospital than to have a patient who has an emergency case back at home. This is because if taken to the hospital at early stages, then the situation may be made better because of the presence of doctors. If the patient does not pull through it is good to know that he or she was under medication in hospital rather than leaving one to suffer and die without being attended to (Brady, 2012, 688-689). Paramedic students should be ready and be aware of commitment to work so that they can have an ample time when working. Preparation in this case is important which makes paramedics mentoring a vital undertaking in the society (Hills, 2012, 690-691). Mentoring paramedic students is a tiresome undertaking for the mentors. This is mainly because it entails information that is sensitive and the mentors have to make certain that all the students get to understand what they are being guided to do. Even with all these challenges, it is a beneficial undertaking as it yields good fruits. After the mentoring process, the mentees are able to develop good communication skills that would be applied in future when communicating with patients and the management staff (Twinley, 2012, 705-714). It is also important as it helps the students to develop caring and compassionate character. These are some of the characters that paramedics should posses. With mentoring, students who aspire to be healthcare individuals will not face it rough as they will have developed the necessary characters required for them to carry out effective service production. (Gaskin, 2012, 629-630) The mentoring process therefore, helps to raise a professional by equipping and preparing the mentees with all knowledge available (Martin, 2012, 625). Boyle in his manuscript specifically touches on weight. This is an issue which can lead to serious illnesses within the body if not controlled. Persons who have huge bodies always tend to suffer from many diseases compared to those who have light bodies. Such cases when worse may lead to complications in the body which will be emergency cases. These are some emergency cases that can be solved personally. In this case, individuals have to take the initiative and have what they consume balanced. A balanced diet according to Boyle, is one perfect method to make certain that the body is fit and at the right size. This is one of the most effective methods to ensure that the body functions well to avoid complications. Besides this method, there are other methodologies that can be implemented. They include practising and having regular medical checkups. All the activities help to make certain that the body is fit and that all the organs are functioning as expected (Boyle, 2012, 11). In mentoring process, supervision is done to test whether all the students have understood what they need to. It is also done in order to ensure that all the students follow instructions needed for operating in sensitive situations. This is mostly done in the laboratories where these students engage in practical activities. In these practical activities they get to learn more and know how to do things practically. Supervision at this point is carried out to make certain that all of them are good to take part in activities while in the hospital and not the laboratory (Gopee, 2011, 221-223). There are steps taken when supervising clinical activities. These steps are undertaken by the professionals, to act as guide to the students and make them know how serious healthcare is. When it comes to emergency cases, patients should be attended to without wasting time to avoid or reduce the number of lives being lost due to neglection (Cassedy, 2010, 98-102). For students who choose to pursue healthcare related courses, they should posses some characters or ensure that they learn to develop some features suitable for the job. This is because there are students who are willing to undertake such courses but do not have the character traits to take up the course. With this type of students, mentors have to put in a lot of efforts to make sure that the dreams of such students are not shut down due to reasons that can be controlled (Garvey, 2009, 38-40). It is not such a difficult task to teach an individual how to be patient, committed, hardworking in order to achieve their goals (Blaber, 2012, 117-119). The department of health encourages that all paramedic students should acquire all skills needed for application in their future lives (Department of Health, 2004, 145-146). It is the responsibility of the mentors therefore, to ensure that their students finish up their training process having all the necessary skills to deal with emergency healthcare issues. All health care professions encourage that every paramedic professional should have certain standards of expertise (Healthcare Professions, 2007, 16-29). It is also necessary that the standard of conduct and ethics be to the level of healthcare profession. This means that characteristics expected from paramedics should be posses in order to offer effective services. (Healthcare Professions, 2008, 76-77).All paramedic students known to have qualified should have done so in the right ways. This means that mentors should make sure they play their part effectively and encourage the students to take part inactivates that will make them have ample time when dealing with emergency cases. This is to ensure that students do not qualify out of pity that they get jobs but because they have knowledge required and have proven that they can undertake the job (Healthcare Professions, 2008, 56-58) General benefits of mentorship to paramedic students The benefits of mentoring paramedics are numerous. This is a process that helps a great deal in preparing an individual to face the future with courage by working for the society. Among the benefits are: The virtues of love and care are instilled in the students. Knowledge on what one did not know before is gained. Causes one to be hard working Prepares one for the future enabling the mentee to undertake the intended task successfully and effectively. Enables one to develop god communication skills. Conclusion In conclusion, mentoring paramedics is a vital undertaking in the society. This is mainly because it helps to train up individuals who end up being useful to the society at large. There are many higher institutions in the contemporary society where health care aspirants receive training classes for future implementation (Newton, 2012, 55). Healthcare professional aspirants who are mentored always grow to be strong in terms of character and personality in general. During mentoring process, many issues are discussed and the most important thing is that knowledge is gained. This knowledge that is acquired is what an individual did not have before. It therefore gives a clear impression that mentees get to know of things they did not know before being mentored. It is generally a vital undertaking that leads to changes in the economy at large. Recommendation In an institution of health, it is the responsibility of the management staff to make certain that all services are rendered as expected and that they are effective enough. In this case, the management has to ensure that all the facilities needed for attending to patients are available. It is also important for the body to note that all persons employed to work in the health centres are qualified. This is to avoid inconveniences since emergency cases are so sensitive. It is their responsibility as well to make sure that the institution has enough workers so that all patients can be attended to at the right time. There are characters that paramedics should posses in order to make their services to patients effective. It is clear that emergency cases should be taken care of as expected since at this point it involves the life of the patient in question. These characteristics include: Patience Commitment Caring and Loving Compassionate Possession of good communication skills Always ready to work as such cases can happen any time. Courageous. This applies to situations where a paramedic is expected to deal with serious injuries. Hardworking Communicates when not available due to some reasons to help the management staff pal to get a replacement in order to avoid inconveniences. With all the practices and individuals in place, a health centre is in a position to offer effective services to customers. This will ensure that clients are attended to at the right time. It will also help to make the family members of the patients save money that would have been used for hospital bills. This is because when patients are attended to at the right time and they are in a conducive environment, they are able to regain strength and be discharged after a short time. The longer time that would have been spent in the hospital is cut short making the family save money. This, in turn, leads to improved living standards. Bibliography Blaber A., 2012. Foundations for Paramedic Practice: A theoretical perspective. Journal of Paramedic Practice. 2 (10), 117-119. Boyle, M., 2012. Weight out: A new formula needed? Journal of Paramedic Practice. 4 (11), pp 625. Brady, M., 2012. The Concept of a ‘good’ death in pre-hospital care. Journal of Paramedic Practice. 4 (12), 688-689. Cassedy, P., 2010. First steps in clinical supervision in healthcare. Journal of Paramedic Practice. 1 (12), 98-102. Catterall, M., 2012. Applied Paramedic science at the University of Hertfordshire: Clinically focused development. Journal of Paramedic Practice. 4 (1), 50-54. Department of health, 2004. Knowledge and skills framework. Journal of Paramedic Practice. 3 (12), 145-146. Garvey, R., Stokes, P., & Megginson, D., 2009. Coaching and Mentoring: Theory and practice. Journal of Paramedic Practice. 2 (6), 38-40. Gaskin, K., 2012. Care and compassion: Have you got what it takes? Journal of Paramedic Practice. 4 (11), 629-630. Gopee, N., 2011. Mentoring and supervision in healthcare. Journal of Paramedic Practice. 1 (10), 221-223. Haly, T., 2012. Support for self-care in Scotland: how can paramedics advocate the self-care agenda? Journal of Paramedic Practice, 4 (1), 22-27. Health Care Professions Council (HCPC), 2007. Standards of Proficiency, Paramedics. Journal of Paramedic Practice. 2 (12), 16-29. Health Care Professions Council., 2008. Standards of conduct, performance and ethics. Journal of Paramedic Practice. 3 (4), 76-77. Health Care Professions Council., 2008. Standards of education and training. Journal of Paramedic Practice.3 (8), 56-58. Hills, J., 2012. The Emergency Services Show. Journal of Paramedic Practice. 4 (12), 690-691. Interpersonal skills education for undergraduate nurses and parademics. 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