The Skills Required in Mentoring in a Healthcare Setting - Essay Example

MENTORING Table of Contents 2 0 MENTOR 3 1 Introduction 3 2 The roles of a mentor 3 3 Characteristics of a Good Mentor 5 1.4 The skills required in mentoring in a health care setting 6 1.5 Generic and specialist communication skills 7 1.6 Nursing and Midwifery students Mentors 8 1.7 Why do Learners Need Mentors? 9 1.8 Conclusion 11 Bibliography 12 to theory and methods, Allyn and Bacon, New York. 12 Coventry University 2012, Mentoring and assessing in healthcare settings, Viewed 5 October 2014, < http://www.coventry.ac.uk/course-structure/2013/faculty-of-health-and- life- sciences/cpd/mentoring-and-assessing-in-healthcare-settings-cpd/> 13 Elsevier 2014, Perceptions of mentor roles in cross-gender mentoring relationships, Viewed 5 October, < http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0001879190900487> 13 Jenni Middleton 2010, Skills to ensure success in mentoring and other workplace learning approaches, Viewed 5 October, < http://www.nursingtimes.net/nursing- practice/specialisms/educators/skills-to-ensure-success-in-mentoring-and-other- workplace-learning-approaches/5010479.> 13 Lint Center 2014, Roles and Characteristics of a Good Mentor, Viewed 5 October 2014, 14 < http://www.lintcenter.org/Mentors/Roles.htm> 14 Management Mentors 2014, Definition of mentoring, benefits of mentoring, & other faqs, Viewed 5 October, < http://www.management-mentors.com/resources/corporate- mentoring-programs-faqs/> 14 Medical Research Council 2010, Guidance for mentors, Viewed 5 October, 14 < https://www.mrc- cbu.cam.ac.uk/documents/equality/MRC%20Guidance%20for%20Mentors.pdf> 14 Mentorset 2008, what is mentoring? Viewed 5 October 2014, 14 Nakagawa Gordon 2012, Mentor roles and responsibilities, Viewed 5 October 2014, 14 < https://www.tcc.fl.edu/CommunityBusiness/SpecialPrograms/Fostering/Pages/Mentor- Roles-and-Responsibilities.aspx> 14 Reza Hashemi 2013, Mentor roles-and-responsibilities, Viewed 5 October, 14 < http://www.slideshare.net/PersianGuru/mentor-rolesandresponsibilities> 14 Rose Hollister 2014, The benefits of being a mentor, Viewed 5 October, 14 < http://www.ache.org/newclub/career/MentorArticles/Benefits.cfm> 14 University of Southern Queensland 2014, Role of the mentor, Viewed 5 October, 14 Welch, O. M. 1996. An Examination of Effective Mentoring Models in the Academy, American education research association, NewYork. 15 1.0 MENTOR 1.1 Introduction A mentor is simply a wise counselor. Mentoring is the process of supporting and guiding people with the aim of empowering them so that they can better manage and benefit from their own potentials, skills and advance their performance and reach where they want to reach. It is also a perfect tool for empowering and developing personal skills and helping people to advance in their careers. The process of mentoring, established under the principle of communal trust and esteem involves two partners, mentor and mentee, with the same objectives (Mentorset 2008). A mentor guides and helps the mentee to take the right direction towards achieving their careers. Mentors usually are people having the same experiences, having a deep understanding of the issue involved, and hence providing the mentee with the chance to reflect on the career options before him and make progress. Therefore, a mentor helps the mentee to believe in himself and uplift his confidence. Finally, the mentee will be able to understand better and direct his life towards a chosen destination (Ongycp n.d.) 1.2 The roles of a mentor The roles and the responsibilities of a mentor are very diverse and complex depending on the question in consideration. The mentor does not decide for the mentee but only assists him to decide. The mentor only guides, facilitates and acts as a role model to the mentee towards where the mentee want to reach (Nakagawa 2012). As time goes, the roles and the responsibilities of the mentor may change depending on the changes in the objectives and needs of the mentee. This is because; each stage reached may require different strategies in order to move successfully to the next stage. However, as the goals, needs and objectives shift, the most important idea to keep in mind is that the mentor always ensures and guarantees the mentee his freedom to develop his own goals (University of Southern Queensland 2014). A mentor is an experienced person who provides guidance to the less experience one by enhancing trust and cultivating positive conduct in him. Thus, a good mentor clearly understands his roles of dependability, engagement, authenticity and tuning to the goals and needs of the mentee. The mentor enables the mentee to discuss all the related matters concerning the subject under development and assists in planning. To effectively, play his roles, a mentor is mostly, a person who has advanced two or more levels higher than the mentee in order to build high confidence in the mentee about his degree of dependability. In some cases where it is impossible to find a person who has advanced two levels, then a relative level of experience may help in selecting the suitable mentor who will offer the required advice (Nakagawa 2012). Most important to understand is that the mentor does not do everything for the mentee but only act as a tool for inspiring, informing and helping the mentee to choose qualities that will greatly assist him to succeed. The mentee is therefore not a minor of the mentor (Elsevier 2014). When making suggestions to the mentee, the mentor takes the necessary precautions to ensure that his views do not contradict those of the mentee’s supervisor. The mentee applies the knowledge and the new skills to achieve better results in response to the support, guidance and encouragement he has received from the mentor (Lint Center 2014). To assist building confidence in the mentee, a mentor is always a person who has professionally succeeded in the field and acquired satisfaction reasonably having something good to show. Therefore such an individual clearly understands his roles to the mentee and thus capable of giving the required support and assistance. A one to one mapping is the most effective one recommended by many experts in order to achieve the best results.  1.3 Characteristics of a Good Mentor There are certain important characteristics that a good mentor have to possess in order to perform his roles effectively. However, most important to know is that not all mentors will possess all of them and they will not possess the qualities at equal levels.      First is global vision that requires a food mentor to look at the mentee’s goals broadly to understand where he was, where he is and where he shall be and appropriately to relate to where the mentee want to be. A perfect mentor has a good understanding of the programs that are obviously heading to a given point but not just processes for one to follow (Lint Center 2014). Most often, he must understand that there are visions and missions that require sacrifice and high involvement for the accomplishment of the task. Therefore, the person can look ahead over a long period and set the goals professionally (Jenni 2010). Secondly, the mentor must possess external awareness of the happenings and the situation outside the environment he is. This will enable him import new ideas from another related field, expand on his knowledge and experiences, gauge and compare himself with the others. This also gives him an idea of the magnitude of the effort required in order to move at the most desirable pace and the new techniques available to facilitate the process (Lint Center 2014). Thirdly, the mentor should possess good networking skills and experience. This means that he must be capable of making, maintaining and benefiting from widened contacts within the organization, heads of departments and many other heads in various organizations in a long period. This will help in providing information that will help in solving problems and enhance career contacts. An effective mentor understands that networking greatly benefits the mentee and therefore inspires and assists the mentee to construct his own networks (Gopee 2011). In addition, a good mentor has both positive and enthusiastic attitude towards the issue under consideration. This means that not every leader who has succeeded in his career can serve as a mentor. A person with negative attitudes towards the goals of the mentee cannot provide the required assistance. The mentor must always believe that the mentee has the ability and the capabilities of achieving his goals and reach where he intends to reach. It is these beliefs that the mentor will share with the mentee therefore inspiring and encouraging him (Gopee 2011).        In addition, the mentor has to stand in the functionality of the community. Mentors are individuals who are resourceful and very dedicated in their duties. A mentor lacking these qualities will not earn recognition from the society and hence he will not accomplish his goals and deliver the necessary service. This also has an effect of reducing his dependability as a role model to the mentee and therefore the latter will not maximally utilise his ideas (Gopee 2011). In addition, a good mentor has professional characteristics, which include duty, loyalty, honor, discipline, truth, trust, respect, high integrity, courage, patience and flexibility. Through these qualities, the mentor will be capable of encouraging the mentee, guide his associates and be a role model for others (Gopee 2011). Although there are, very few people who possess all the qualities required there are many leaders and managers who have proved their competency and success who possess many of the qualities and can thus serve as good mentors. 1.4 The skills required in mentoring in a health care setting The selection of mentors for healthcare students or learners must consider all the important factors for the achievement of the best positive results. In fact, some healthcare experts warn that the continuous assignment of mentors for healthcare learners may be disadvantageous to them owing to the voluminous work they have to undertake in the development of their profession. Therefore, in the process of selecting their mentors, it is important to ensure that these individuals possess all the important skills and qualities which include, good-coaching skills, experienced in counseling and guiding, good facilitator, perfect in setting standards and having the ability to assess and set standards. However, some of these skills can develop through suitable education and excellent preparation (Coventry University 2012). For both nursing and the midwifery learners their mentors are supposed to be individuals who have registered in either the field or part of the field in which the students are pursuing and be in the same field of practice. This may include mental health, adult or children nursing as well as learning disability (Reza 2013). In addition, the individual whose part of his roles is to build confidence in the learners has to have developed his knowledge and skills above the registration requirements (Coventry University 2012). He has to be competent in his area of specialization and at least one-year period since registration. Furthermore, there are mentorship preparation programs available for all individuals who wish to volunteer and mentor learners in the healthcare profession. Completing these programs is necessary for all the mentors in order to qualify for this task of selecting, supporting and assessing the opportunities in the area students are pursuing. Above all, they have to possess the ability of supporting learning in other related fields (Adams 1992). Finally, mentors must have the ability of assessing other experts who are under their supervision, be capable of making judgments on the competency of learners in the area of practice and be responsible to their decisions. In addition, they should possess the capability of supporting other nurses as well as midwives in meeting the set standards (Adams 1992). 1.5 Generic and specialist communication skills Apart from the overall communication skills, the mentor must develop his own specialized communication skills in order to effectively, address the more complex issues affecting the mentee. He therefore has to create a range of communication with each component aiming at dealing with a specific issue affecting the mentee (Bloom 1995). The discussion below provides a good guidance for this; During the first stage when creating a work relationship with the mentee, the mentor exchanges information using personal skills such as listening skill in so called primary communication. After this stage, the mentor may want to give advice directly to the learner especially when teaching or advising. For the case of guiding and counseling, the individual needs more training (Bogdan & Biklen 2003). Special communication skills are also necessary in primary counseling, which most frequently used to deal with complex mentoring situations. However, to deal with severe psychological issues, secondary counseling skills are necessary for the mentor to direct the learner to suitable supporting services. For example, a student constantly complaining about feeling ill, the mentor can advise him to visit the professional health section and providing further guidance on the location of such section and prepare him for the expected outcome. The mentor can also enable the mentee to explain in detail how they think about a patient whom they have looked after but finally died. In addition, a mentor needs special skills in counseling a student who has failed in an evaluation (Welch 1996). 1.6 Nursing and Midwifery students Mentors The mentor has to be a role model who willfully practices nursing and has advanced to a very high standard with excellent experience in a manner that the learner can recognize and imitate. In addition, he has to be a perfect energizer and passionate on nursing in order to be able to inspire and motivate the learner (Butterworth 1992) He is also envisioned with clear knowledge of the means of improving patient care and very active on innovations. He has to be an investor who is willing to invest the suitable amount of time and pass on the skills, knowledge and experience (Medical Research Council 2010). Above all, he is supposed to be supportive who will give time and ready to listen and be available to the mentee when needed. The mentor must always be questioning about his own standards and eager to improve by setting the appropriate targets and determining the most suitable time for achieving the targets. He has to be a teacher who is ready to teach and impart knowledge related to patient care. Through this characteristic, he can thus provide guidance, set-aside time for the learner to learn, practice and internalize with the content as well as allowing the learner to acquire experience (Andrews & Roberts 2003). He also has to be a person who gives feedback and hence provide positive feedback and reveal the areas that require special attention, discuss the weaknesses and propose further learning. He also has to be a revelation to inspire interests in a wider issue and set initiatives that can help to bring positive impacts to the learner. He needs to open the door by suggesting any obtainable healthcare necessities and learning potentials related to the profession and objectives (Ali & Panther, 2008) The mentor has to possess the ability to encourage the learner to create and articulate innovative ideas and reflect on them. In addition, he has to assist the mentee to think in a systematic manner and come up with the most appropriate means of solving and preventing problems that affect him. The mentor also has to be able to offer guidelines in career development and enable the learner to think critically about his own decisions, ideas, opinions as well as beliefs (Rowley 1999). 1.7 Why do Learners Need Mentors? The implementation and utilization of the role of a mentor is very common and universally accepted and learners have found a clear facility that is affordable to them. Experts in the field have managed to reveal many facts in support for the necessity of a mentor to students. The mentoring process generally aims at enabling students to achieve competencies in their course practice and to eliminate all the worries and the fears on the mentee’s ideas and delivery of care (Arnon & Reichel 2007). In nursing and other related health fields mentoring is used for providing guidance and supporting the learner to head towards the right direction apart from structuring the work environment for the learner. The mentor also gives constructive and truthful feedback in response to demands from the learner in order to assist and guide appropriately on the problems the learner is facing (Rose 2014). The mentor is very important in briefing the learner about the good or bad experience during assignment of duties apart from acting as link individual with new areas (Johnson 2007). The mentor also acts as a role model based on the successes he has achieved in the field and assesses the competencies of the learner. He encourages the learner by building a close friendship with him and acts as a counselor. The mentor also provides appropriate base of knowledge for nursing intervention in addition to questioning and protecting the learner from poor practice that will either yield negative results or produce less effective outcome (Kathy n.d.). The mentor also is important to assist in building confidence in the learning through shared experiences and skills. The presence of a mentor is also a requirement by the authorities that have the responsibility of supervising and overseeing the training of new persons who intend to join the field (Combs, Avila & Purkey 1971) The mentor is usually an individual with many years of working experience. Through his knowledge, skills and experience he is important in assisting the learner to link theory to practical. The mentoring process also assists the learner in uplifting work skills, training and explanation. Above all, mentoring is a perfect tool for socialization (Glickman 1985). To continue, mentorship can improve the recruitment benefits of student after qualifying in their course. This is truer depending on the length of period the learner has been in contact relationship with the mentor (Management Mentors 2014). Many experts support the idea that prolonged mentor mentee relationship builds competence in the mentee and enhance the recruitment benefits of the mentee. This is because the relationship between the mentor and the mentee builds trust and confidence in the person recruiting and cultivates positive attitude towards the person (Loevinger 1976). Ethical issues in nursing require that those who are experienced practitioners have a responsibility of nurturing and assisting learners to also develop and acquire competency in the profession. Mentoring also provides an opportunity for the registrant to teach which is also part of their professional advancement and can provide an important step for their career trajectory. The concept of learning based on work constitutes development based on practice and knowledge, which is the most desirable in the profession (Sprinthall & Theis-Sprinthall 1980). Mentoring enables the learner to observe skilled performances. The behavior observed is more distinct and useful hence stimulating the learner about the skill. The learner then becomes keener in learning and positively reinforced for acquiring new skills (The Catholic University of America 2011). The learner therefore identifies the path to follow to arrive where his mentor has reached. The process of observing the skill will also improve the mental retention of the skill gradually in several steps of performance. Nobody is born with experience. Experience in any field comes because of observing other people and nursing is not an exception. We learn from what we see and hear from others therefore the mentor facilitates the process of seeing and hearing what the learner intends to learn. This can initially occur through coaching which requires the mentee to explore and utilize certain techniques and take more directive approaches (Taylor 2007). 1.8 Conclusion Mentoring is a key mechanism in the facilitation of learning for the healthcare career students in practice placement. It is a pretty mechanism properly established and is one of the most important requirements in education programs before acquiring registration. Mentors are experienced people who facilitate learning by supervising and assessing students in practice setting. They also inspire learners and build confidence in them. They act as role models for learners and focus on their professional progress. Registered nurses and midwives in the healthcare profession have to play the roles of teaching, supervising and guiding individuals with the same aim of becoming professionals in the field. Mentors play a very important role in the learning and professional development of learners in the healthcare profession and learners must take advantage of their skills and experience to reach where they want to reach. Bibliography Adams, 1992. Mentoring: an essential factor in the doctoral process for minority students, National consortium for graduate degrees for minorities in engineering and science, Notre Dame. Andrews, M. & Roberts, D. 2003. Supporting student nurses learning in and through clinical practice: the role of the clinical guide, National center for biotechnology information, Bethesda. Ali, P. A., & Panther, W. 2008. Professional development and the role of mentorship. National center for biotechnology information, Bethesda. Arnon, S., & Reichel, N. 2007. Who is the ideal teacher? 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