Mentoring, Preceptorship, and Clinical Supervision - Assignment Example

Mentoring, Perceptorship, and Clinical Supervision In this scenario, it can be noted that Paul is in his foundation year and currently in his second term. Just two weeks into his practice, it has been observed that he appears to have some difficulties particularly with regards to coordination with others. For instance, he is poor in handling things which causes some problems with development of clinical skills. He has a “clumsy gait” and has difficulties in listening as well as communicating in general since he is slow to pick up things or learn. However, this is not a new and unique case and certain measures can be put in place to rectify the situation. The Duffy report (NMC, 2004) and Lahunga et al (2008) suggest that mentors can find assessing learners who are under performing a challenge but it is the role of the healthcare professional and mentor to ensure that learners are competent and offer support to those who are under achieving in their practice. Against this background, this essay seeks to critically analyse the role of the mentor in the case given above. It starts by defining mentorship then followed by an explanation of the role of the mentor and will conclude with a critical analysis of the effectiveness of mentoring in health care. In order to gain a clear understanding of the concept of mentorship, it is imperative to begin by defining the term. Kay and Hinds (2005, P. 9) define mentoring as “a relationship between two parties who are not connected within a line management structure, in which one party (a mentor) guides the other (the mentee) through a period of change towards an agreed objective.” During placements, the students have to learn specific clinical skills and to enable them to achieve these skills, the mentor is assigned and his role is to ensure that the student is learning these skills and assessing their competence on those skills at appropriate time (NMC, 2008a as cited in Gopee, 2008). This process is also concerned with creating an informal environment in which one person can feel encouraged to discuss their needs and circumstances openly and in confidence with the qualified health care official who is in a position to be of positive help to them. In this case, Paul is a slow learner and he has a “clumsy gait.” For instance, he is poor in handling things which causes some problems with clinical skills. He has difficulties in listening as well as communicating in general since he is slow to pick up things or learn. However, it is not by choice for Paul to be in this predicament hence it is the role of the mentor to ensure that Paul’s competence is improved. A mentor in this case can take a leading role in helping and supporting Paul to achieve his goal in his nursing career though offering help such as additional attention when explaining something to him. The mentor needs to closely monitor the performance of Paul and offer guidance in the area he thinks that he is lacking. Mentoring is an important support tool that a mentor can use to help trainees on placement to improve their competences, achievement and understanding of the role expectations. As such, mentoring can remove unnecessary fears among the trainees where they can immensely benefit from the knowledge of senior and experienced workers in a cordial fashion which encourages growth of interpersonal relationship. Where there is a cordial relationship among the trainees and their mentors, there would be very high chances of the trainees to successfully achieve their clinical goals of improved competences. Mentors in healthcare are the practitioners who have more experience and knowledge and they guide, support and nurture the less experienced trainees in this case. A wise mentor makes sure that people like Paul are getting attention and he or she needs to be aware of their values and ethical interpretations of clinical practice to enable students to develop ethical competences (Nopee, 2008). Thus, mentoring is about developing relationships that encompass a wide range of issues not just those concerned with problem solving but career development as well as other personal matters. Establishing a mutual relationship between the mentor and the mentee is a desired situation given that all the barriers that can hinder free interaction and discussion will be removed. The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 suggests that discriminating people on the basis of their disabilities is unjustified and it is the responsibility of the authorities overseeing the custody of such people to ensure that their needs are met. The Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001 stipulates that special provisions for disabled people should be put in place such that they will not suffer significant disadvantages compared to the other students. The mentor has a duty to ensure that Paul receives special provisions such as hearing aids as it has been noted that he has some difficulties in listening to people and appears to have some coordination difficulties. This does not translate into meaning inability for Paul. Thus, the mentor has a role to ensure that he or she understands the problems facing Paul as explained above and to suggest measures that can be put in place to rectify the situation. To a certain extent, Paul is aware of his predicament the reason why he becomes so stressed, anxious and at times frustrated. The mentor therefore has to approach this subject in a delicate and cordial fashion which will lead to a positive response by Paul. As a point of departure, the mentor must let his intentions known by Paul. The mentor can also play a pivotal role through the use visual aids so as to enable Paul to grasp the meaning of visual communication. Mentoring focuses on the role of the learner as the center of the learning process while the mentor would act as a regulator or facilitator that guides the learners throughout the process in giving them the required knowledge in a positive way. This can be done on an individual basis where the mentor and the mentee can freely engage with each other and discuss matters of personal concern. The engagement between the mentor and the mentee need not to be a totally isolated and private affair but the mentor can encourage Paul in this case to cooperate with the other learners so as to gain confidence which can positively contribute towards reaching the expected level of performance. Learning under the guidance of a mentor to accomplish shared learning goals can be a source of self esteem. It is very important for the learners in a group to work together with their mentor in order to share and exchange ideas with others. At an individual level like the case involving Paul and the mentor, it can be noted that Paul can gain confidence through interaction with the other trainees. Basically, the mentor has a role to promote an enabling clinical environment to cater for Paul’s safety and health needs. As it stands, the university should also provide special needs for Paul such as hearing aids that can enhance his listening abilities so as to be in a better position to improve his competences. Having identified and understood the needs of Paul, the tutor or the mentor ought to institute programmes that are meant to facilitate progress through initial training or involvement. In order to give support as a mentor, it is important to recognise that there are several stages in life that can prove to be difficult experiences. Involvement is recommendable since it inculcates a sense of interdependence where the learner who is Paul in this case would discover that success is earned through the efforts of the other people. This also promotes interaction between the mentor and the mentee which promotes development and sharing of knowledge. In this particular case, the slowness of Paul does not in any way mean to say that he is unable to function properly. There is only need to promote interaction in a meaningful way between him and his mentor which is very effective in improving his competences. The other role of the mentor is to display positive leadership qualities as this can lead to increased interaction between Paul and the other trainees which can be one good plan of motivating him to be part of the task as well as captivating his attention since he would also have a role to play in his learning career. Paul is likely to be motivated if he is being led by an exemplary person who would try to establish a free environment in which the mentee would not feel betrayed or let down by discussing subjects which may appear to be too personal. Thus, the mentor’s greatest role is to closely monitor Paul’s progress and constantly revisiting the areas which would require attention. Basically, this is the main objective of mentoring whereby the mentor would seek to ensure that Paul has developed his learning skills to be better positioned to reach the expected level of competence in practice. In order to fully support the management of a learner who is not achieving the required level of competence in practice, there is need to create a relationship based on mutual understanding between the mentor and the mentee. Mutual understanding in such a kind of learning environment is very crucial in that it would allow easy interaction which also allows free flow of information between the two parties involved. For mentoring to be successful, there is also need for a degree of compatibility between Paul and the mentor. Creating a free environment which can promote the free flow of information and sharing of ideas is a basic tenet of the mentoring exercise. For mentoring exercise to be successful, it can be noted that communication plays a crucial role since it allows the exchange of vital information between the two parties involved to take place. According to Alson and Palmer (2000), the positive aspects of mentoring are witnessed when individuals start to trust, share and respect each other. Thus, an enabling environment will lead to creation of a mutual relationship which is beneficial to both the mentor and mentee as they will be assured of achieving their desired goal in health care practice. Alson and Palmer (2000) cite the case of Karen who managed to develop her own professional identity constructively under the mentorship of Edwina. It can be noted in this case that mutual understanding is very important in order to have a successful relationship between the mentor and the mentee. Thus, for a mentoring relationship to work just like any other relationship, both parties need to understand from the onset the expectations of the other. As part of the mentoring process, it is very important for the mentor and Paul to discuss and agree on the aspects or subject areas that will be covered. In this case, task management is mainly concerned with ensuring the achievement of set objectives and this can only be done through careful implementation of the set goals and objectives. Embarking on a new task often means that new knowledge has to be communicated to the parties involved about the task to be accomplished. First and foremost, it is imperative to provide basic training to Paul so that he can be equipped with the required knowledge to undertake the agreed exercise meant to improve his competencies at practice. The fundamental ethical issues concerning the failure of the students in practice is that the mentors at times do not treat the relationships and discussions held between them and the students with confidentiality. As mentioned, health care professional’s regulatory bodies’ codes are based on ethical principles that registrants abide by (Gopee, 2008). In practice, the mentors should be exemplary and uphold all ethical considerations as a way of inculcating a sense of trust among their trainees who may be lagging behind. In essence, privacy is a virtue as far as ethics is concerned in the healthcare industry. The professional issues concerning referral or failure of students in practice mainly emanate from the fact that the mentors will lack professionalism by virtue of taking everything for granted on the assumption that students on practice generally know what is expected of them which may not be the case. According to a study by Andrews & Chilton (2000), their findings demonstrate that staff nurses with a teaching and assessing qualification would often view themselves as effective mentors while at the same time viewing students as ineffective at times. However, the students will rate their mentors positively regardless of their qualifications. The code of ethics in the healthcare also indicates that registrants must also facilitate student learning to enable them to develop their competence (Gopee, 2008). The qualified mentors would at times lead to failure of the students because they would assume that their mentees are capable enough to know and grasp everything at the same pace as them which is not quite true in practical terms. It can be noted that the bottom line in this case is not about being highly skilled but it is about the relationship that exists between the mentor and the mentee. Indeed, some of the students know the essence of learning through interaction hence the need for the mentors to take a leading role in creating mutual understanding between them and the students. Over and above, it can be concluded that mentoring is about giving help and support in a non-threatening way but in a manner that the recipient will appreciate and value which can empower them to move forward with confidence towards what they want to achieve. In the given case, it has been observed that Paul is a slow learner and he drops things. He has a “clumsy gait” and is poor in handling things which causes some problems with clinical skills. He also has difficulties in listening as well as communicating in general since he is slow to pick up things or learn. As such, the mentor has a great role to ensure that he or she gives Paul the support that can enable him to improve his practical competences. The mentor has a role to give special attention to Paul through working closely with him. The university can also offer special needs such as hearing aids so as to enable Paul to develop his competences. One good recipe for success in achieving this feat is the need to create mutual relationship between the mentor and Paul so that they will understand each other and can share information in a free and enabling environment. References Alson M.C & Palmer, A 2000, Mentoring, perceptorship and clinical supervision: a guide to professional nursing, viewed 16 March, 2011, Andrews, M & Chilton, F 20 Feb 2000, Student and mentor perceptions of mentoring effectiveness, Vol 20. Issue 7. Pg 555-562, October 2000, viewed 16 March, 2011, Gopee, N 2008, ‘ Assessing student nurses’ clinical skills: The ethical competence of mentors,’ International journal of therapy and rehabilitation, September 2008, Vol 15, No 9. Jackson, SE & Schuler, R 2000, Managing Human Resources: A Partnership Perspective, South Western College Publishing, NY. Kay, D & Hinds, R 2005, A practical guide to mentoring, 2nd Edition, How to books, London. Kleynhans, R et al 2007, Management: fresh perspectives, Pearson Education, CT. Grobler, P Et al 2006, Human Resource Management, 3rd Edition, Thompson Learning, London. Robins, SP, Odendaal, A& Roodt, G 2001, Organisational Behaviour, Pearson Education, CT. Schultz, H et al 2003, Organisational behaviour, Van Schaik Publishers, CT. Noe DP ND, Nursing: Mentoring new nurses, viewed 17 March, 2011, From:< http://www.helium.com/knowledge/207943-how-to-mentor-nurses> Werner, A et al 2007, Organisational behaviour: A contemporary SA perspective,2nd Edition, Van Schaik Publishers: CT. Read More