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Summary
This article focuses on mentorship. There is an important professional expectation of registered nurses and midwives to mentor pre-registration nursing students in clinical practice. The article examines ways to evaluate the learning environment and the student experience, and offers practical suggestions to improve the quality of mentorship for mentors and students.
Keywords
Clinical skills, competencies, mentoring, student assessment
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Aims and intended learning outcomes
The aim of this article is to provide an overview of the main principles and processes involved in mentoring pre-registration nursing students in the clinical environment. The article is intended for nurses and midwives who may be planning to undertake a preparation for mentorship programme. It may also benefit existing mentors who wish to update their skills in accordance with Standards to Support Learning and Assessment in Practice (SSLAP) as introduced by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) in 2006 and revised in 2008 (NMC 2008a). After reading this article and completing the time out activities you should be better able to:
* Define and describe the role of mentorship in clinical practice.
* Discuss how adults learn.
* Assess students in practice.
* Evaluate mentorship in practice.
Introduction
Derived from Greek mythology, the word mentor means to act as an adviser, role model, counsellor, tutor and/or teacher (Roberts 1999). A mentor in the context of this article is an experienced nurse or midwife who has undertaken an approved mentorship preparation programme and is qualified to support and assess students in the practice setting.
The NMC (2008a) requires nurses and midwives to undertake a ten-day preparation for mentorship programme, of which five days are allocated to protected learning time. Following completion of the programme the mentor will be registered on a mentor database alongside existing mentors. To continue mentoring, registered mentors are required to attend an annual update. Thereafter, at triennial review, the NMC (2008a) requires registered mentors to self-declare that they are fit to mentor...