The Role of a Mentor - Essay Example

? Analyse critically the role of a mentor when evaluating the quality of education provision in practice and propose aspects for change resulting from such evaluation 1. Introduction 1.1 Who is a mentor? The health care professional students in their learning environments encounter mentorship as one of the most valuable mechanisms (Kinnell & Hughes, 2009). The Nursing & Midwifery Council (NMC), 2008a: 45 has defined a mentor as “a registrant who has met the outcomes of Stage 2 (i.e. those of a qualified mentor) and who facilitates learning, and supervises and assesses students in practice settings”. The role of a mentor is very important when evaluating the education provision in practice. According to the NMC, “To be a sign-off mentor you must successfully complete an approved programme and then be supervised, on at least three occasions, signing off the proficiency of a student (at the end of a final placement). This supervision must be taken by an existing sign-off mentor. Once all the above has been completed you can be annotated as such on the local mentors live register.” (NMC, 2012: 45) The NMC standards (NMC 2012), direct and describe the discrete knowledge and skills which are required by nurses and midwives in supporting students in practice. Eight domains have been identified by the NMC and they are namely establishment of effective working relationship, facilitation of training, assessment as well as accountability, evaluation of learning, creation of learning environment, context of practice and eventually evidence based practice and lastly the notion of leadership (Nursery & Midwifery Council, 2008). To ensure the best quality of education provision in practice the mentors are responsible for implementing the NMC standards/domains. The paper will cover two domains. 2.1 Analyse critically the role of a mentor when evaluating the quality of education provision in practice, and propose aspects for change resulting from such evaluation The learning opportunities provided by the mentor to the students are immense .In order for mentors to develop and evaluate the quality of the learning environment they need to develop trusting relationships with the students. At the start of the placement they should give the students an orientation pack or welcome pack (Faculty of health and social care sciences, 2013). This is required by the students for the purpose of gaining information which will help in facilitating the learning and will help the experience of practice placement. A mentor who has developed a good working relationship with a student is in a better position to obtain honest feedback on their placement experience From the NMC guidelines, the practice areas will be using evaluation results in developing the practice learning opportunities in their respective areas. Student feedback on an individual basis and overall evaluation, guides the mentor in gauging their mentoring performance as well as identifying changes that could be implemented in the practice area for the improvement of the learning experience of the students. The evaluation results will also be reviewed within the learning area (Faculty of health and social care sciences, 2013). The students are required to conduct a formal evaluation at the end of placement. This will help in providing evidence of the experience the pre and post registration nurse have had in their placement education. An alternative method of evaluation is that of informal feedback. Both these methods provide evidence of both positive areas which as well as highlight the difficult areas and areas which prevented skill generation (Pinfield et al, 2011). The NMC guidelines and standards state that the students are required on a formal basis, to evaluate their practice and learning opportunities. This is sometimes done through online survey at time they return to the university however the disadvantage is that the ward/unit may not always get that evaluation feedback. The students are asked to respond to a series of questions associated with the practice placement. The results of survey are amalgamated by the university and shared with Trust/Organization every 6 months (Faculty of health and social care sciences, 2013). In order to facilitate evaluation of the placement provision mentors have to ensure that adequate mentors are made available to students (NMC 2012) Allocation of mentors is important to provide the best education provision. The mentors should be directed towards investigating the effectiveness of placement education, and to be mindful of improvements which could be made. In some areas mentorship could include the support and integration of new staff nurses within various roles. The mentors should explore various aspects that are positive for both the learners as well as the preceptors. They should l also identify various outstanding requirements and barriers (Hancock, 2002). The NMC standards direct towards designing, planning and implementing the program of study that will be directed towards teaching and supporting the student. The standards also direct towards integration of scholarship, research and professional activities with teaching and supporting learning (NMC 2012). These are the areas which should be evaluated by the mentor. Another aspect of provision which the mentor should consider is the learning resources available to students. Resources can include notice boards, which provided information about the provision available on the unit. If resources are not available, mentors could take responsibility for arranging that these facilities are made available. Another mechanism for evaluating and changing the education provision is through the two yearly audit of the education provision (NMC 2012). The mentors need to become familiar with the audit methodologies and principles. Audit is carried out ever two years and completed jointly by the placement representative or responsible staff member and the university link lecturer. Good placement provision is identified along with areas for development (NMC 2012). An example of an area which might be identified as a weakness might be the numbers of mentors. There are strict guidelines or rules for qualifying as a mentor. In fact, to be a sign off mentor one needs to complete a study scheme which is sanctioned and then he needs to be supervised three times at least by another sign off mentor (NMC 2012). His role is to assess a student and ensure that he or she has attained the required standard. The demarcation of roles need to be specific and made in such a manner that there is no clash between the decisions of mentors at the same level. The designations must strictly follow the MNC guidelines for mentorship in order to avoid this problem of too many mentors or one mentor performing different categories of job. However, “The contemporary scenario of the busy mentor in a short-staffed clinical area trying to balance the needs of the patients, managers and others with those of a student means that time is at a premium.” (Walsh, 2010, p. 19) Maintaining good working relations with students is very important. The mentor needs to be a good listener and interactive with students. Their first day and the first week are very important and should be dealt properly and carefully. Participation in self, and peer evaluation will result in facilitation of personal development as well as contribute the evaluation of learning and the development of other individual (NMC 2012). Mentors can encourage students to reflect on their learning and what aspects of their learning environment they felt either help that process or not. An example might be a very busy ward/unit. A mentor might incorporate a feedback system in order to nurture valuable exchange of thoughts and arrange formal meets for brief duration in order to promote the same. It is above all very important to keep proper relations and approachability such that students might approach with their problems and questions to the mentors. A mentor needs to keep his or her eyes and ears open such that the students’ unexpressed problems and issues might come to their notice. References 1. Effective Mentoring,(2013). Mentoring and Supervision in Healthcare, Available at, < http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/39882_9780857024190.pdf> accessed on 20 February, 2013 2. Faculty of health and social care sciences (2013). Kingston University, Available at, < http://www.healthcare.ac.uk/mentor-resources/documents/how-your-students-evaluate-practice.pdf> accessed on 20 February, 2013 3. Hancock, J, (2002), Preceptorship on a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit: Evaluating effectiveness, Paediatric Nursing, Vol. 14, issue. 6 4. Watts, P. (2011), Health Visitor Return to Practice Framework, Available at, < http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/10320/1/dh_129700.pdf> accessed on 20 February, 2013 5. Nursery & Midwifery Council, (2013). Available at, < http://www.nmc-uk.org/Documents/Standards/nmcStandardsToSupportLearningAndAssessmentInPractice.pdf> accessed on 20 February, 2013 6. NMC (2012), Mentorship, available at: http://www.nmc-uk.org/Educators/Standards-for-education/Standards-to-support-learning-and-assessment-in-practice/Standards-to-support-learning-and-assessment-in-practice-settings-SLAiP/Mentorship/ (accessed on March 15, 2013) 7. Kinnell , K & Hughes, P, ( 2009), Mentoring Nursing and Health Care Students, SAGE 8. Mentor Handbook, (2013). Nursing & Midwifery Faculty of Health and Life Sciences Midwifery Division, Available at, < http://www.dmu.ac.uk/documents/health-and-life-sciences-documents/mentors/pre-registration-midwifery-mentor-information-pack.pdf> (accessed on 20 February, 2013) 9. Paediatric Department Neonatal Unit, (2011). Available at: accessed on 20 February, 2013 10. Pinfield J et al, (2011), Developing careers in neonatal nursing to meet service demands. Arts and Science, Vol.25, No. 23 11. Profile for the Clinical Learning Environment, (2012). Available at, < http://www.bliss.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Neonatal-Mapping-Report-Bliss-Website-Dec-2011.pdf> accessed on 20 February, 2013 12. Standards to support learning and assessment in practice NMC standards for mentors, practice teachers and teachers, (2013). Available at, accessed on 20 February, 2013 13. Walsh, D. (2010), The Nurse Mentor’s Handbook, Mc-Graw Hill International Read More