NURSING: In this essay I have chosen to explore the skills and qualities required to establish and maintain an effective working relationship with my mentor in practice in the role of supervisee.

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In this essay I have chosen to explore the skills and qualities required to establish and maintain an effective working relationship with my mentor in practice in the role of supervisee. I will discuss communication skills, willingness to learn, self-awareness, assertiveness, open-mindedness, reflective skills as criteria of mentee to establish working relationship with mentor.

 The term mentor originates from Greek mythology, was first introduce in academic and business world of north America (Laurent 1998) used in United Kingdom with the implementation of project 2000 in the national health service (Bracken 1989) to help smooth transition from student to professional. (Philips et al 1996, Grey M and Smith1999). The dictionary defines a mentor as a trusted counselor or guide. A mentor is generally an influential, experienced individual with whom mentee establish a personal relationship and who actively helps mentee reach their goals. The terms mentorship are designated to staff nurses who engage in a multitude of roles supporting student nurses in the clinical setting. (Quinn2000). And reducing the theory practice gap (Earnsaw 1995). Mentorship is a mechanism that promotes safe and effective practice, maintains standards and accountability, and develops nurse practitioners autonomy.

Proctor (1998) has grouped supervisees’ skills under three functions: formative, supportive and normative. Supervisee should be keen, capable, trustworthy, attentive, and be able to ask questions (Hart 1982). Myric and Younge (2002)talk about the need for collaborative relationship. Bulmer (1997) identifies the importance of Commitment, time keeping or punctuality,ability to accept constructive criticism as characterstics of mentee.Mentee should be Honest about how they work what they think and what they feel (Driscoll2000). Mentee should open to feedback, assertiveness, willingness to learn, open and available for learning opportunities, have good communication skills, reflective skills, open mindedness, ability to build and maintain trust (Bond M and Holland 1998, Page S and Wosket V 2001).

Open-mindedness includes an active desire to listen to more sides than one. Open mindedness is needed to give full attention to alternative possibilities: to recognise the possibility of error even in the beliefs that are dearest to us. It is an ability to consider other points of view and other approaches to problem in light of ones own ideas. It is an attitude, which encourage the individual to grapple with new ideas. Sometimes supervisee may not feel comfortable talking about their practice perhaps because they do not feel confident and are afraid to be criticised. They may be reluctant to engage in any meaningful reflections saying that everything is fine and there are no problems some supervisee want to hide because they feel threatened by supervisor.

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Self-awareness. An awareness of attitude is essential for the identification of learning needs of supervisee (Hawkins and shohet(1989). The appropriate recognition of the nurses’ own feelings, the frame work to understand those feelings and the ability to contain those feelings allowed a clear understandings of difficulties that the patient was experience (Philips et al 1998). Rawlinson defines self-awareness as bringing into consciousness (those) various aspect of our understandingly of ourselves. Constructive appreciation of the self is essential. Supervisee is needed to feel that the supervision not judging them (Bulmer 1997, Fyffe 1997, Roden 1997).

 Assertiveness.  Assertive behaviour is defined as setting goals, ...

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