The role of mentoring new staff, new nursing graduates and nursing students on placement, is an important responsibility for all registered nurses in the workplace. Discuss.
Mentoring is the role taken on by a registered nurse who facilitates the teaching of the latest evidenced based skills and techniques in the clinical setting to new staff, new nursing graduates and nursing students on placement. It is the role of the mentor to reflect on their own practice during this time and review the mentees progress by way of ensuring the mentee achieves competence in the goals set. Mentors play a pivotal role in ensuring that risks are minimised for both patient and mentee by constant supervision, support and nurturing. The learning environment needs to be safe, honest, non-judgemental and supportive in order for the mentee to learn. Adult learners as mentees learn by reflecting on life experiences and history, therefore the mentor must ensure that all learning is performed in the way that best suites the mentee, in order to achieve the best learning outcome. Mentoring is a rewarding experience as it influences the next generation of nurses.
Mentoring involves a voluntary, mutually beneficial and usually long-term professional relationship. According to the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Council (ANMC) (2006) the term mentor is used to denote the role of a registered nurse who facilitates learning and supervises and assesses students in the practice place. A mentor possesses the characteristics of generosity, competence, self-confidence, and a commitment to the mentor relationship, along with faculty camaraderie (Cangelosi, 2004). Other characteristics include approachability, good interpersonal skills, adopting a positive teaching role, paying attention to learning, providing supervisory support, and professional development abilities (Andrews & Wallis, 2009). A mentor is many different things to many different people, however from the abovementioned...