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Introduction

MENTORING AND FACILIATING YOUR OWN AND OTHER PROFESSIONS The aim of this assignment is to critically evaluate the role of a mentor with personal reflection of the mentoring process, looking at four key requirements for mentoring practice. According to the Nursing Midwifery Council NMC (2006) the term mentor is used to describe the role of a registered nurse who assesses students? needs, to help facilitate the learning process in a practical setting. Chambers and Wall (2000) suggest that a good mentor should include qualities of honesty, enthusiasm, trust, patience, knowledge, experience and empathy. They should also be able to have a non-judgmental attitude and good interpersonal skills. For this mentorship course I have been allocated a second year child branch student. She has had little to no experience working with neonates, but has worked on a children?s ward. Her placement will last 10 weeks and she has been allocated 2 mentors. For the first week of her placement she worked with me solidly. Kenworthy and Nicklin (2000) suggest that the more comfortable and secure a student feels within the placement environment, they are more likely to have a positive experience. Honey and Mumford (1992) express that if you teach according to a specific learning style, preferred by the student this creates a tailored learning experience. ...read more.

Middle

Interpersonal relationships were recognised as being very important within the clinical learning environment. Rogers (1983) suggests that people fulfil their full potential if they have a positive view on themselves. This can be achieved when other individuals treat the person with respect and make them feel valued with unconditional positive regard. The issue with this, people don?t see positive regard as unconditional. Rather they only feel valued in certain situations this leads to students feeling undervalued if they don?t behave in a particular way. Whilst Rogers (1967) suggests that people need unconditional positive regard, Maslow (1970) argues that people need a variety of needs which to achieve at different times. To evaluate learning environments it?s important for workplaces to complete SWOT analysis. This is to examine the workplace, and from this analysis I identified some key areas on the placement that needed improving. Price (2004) helps mentors analysis their workplace by encouraging mentors to conduct (SWOT) strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The SWOT analysis and measure created are in Appendix 1. SWOT analyses are supported by Price (2004) he encourages mentors to explore their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to help them evaluate their learning environment. This framework is based on practical skills, practice resources, student support and an educational method that can be used in any environment. ...read more.

Conclusion

Also mentors have been show to pass on the student so other people can fail the student if this was appropriate (Chamber 1998). Mentors have been show to favour personality over ability to further the issue of not assessing student as a whole but only focusing on the good aspects (IIott and Murphy 1999). This is why having designated mentors and completing regular assessment is important in determining if a student is competent. Creating on competences has been a way of developing standard to assess students (Chambers 1998 and Redman et al 1999). Competence?s allows for an assessment to determine if the student is able to provide safe and effective professional practice without supervision (Nursing Midwifery Council 2002). Competencies provide the foundation for which these assessments can be made (Wynne and Stringer 1997). While competencies have their advantages it can have its difficulty?s in placements that have unpredictable workloads (Lester 1994). In conclusion this essay has explored the concept of mentorship and the processes, which are used to assess students. I have developed a good knowledge base and critical awareness of the mentorship process. Research into the learning environment has clearly shown that it can have a massive impact on the students learning, and their ability to reach their full potential in their placement. The exploration of learning theories and styles within this assignment has helped me become a better mentor and integrate theory into practice. ...read more.

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