Mentoring and Enabling Learning in the Practice Setting Essay

With focus on the quality and standards of assessors to meet the learning needs of the candidates, where a lack of progress is highlighted or an inconsistency within assessments will result in further support for the assessment team, potentially in the form of further standardization

The aim of this assignment is to critically reflect on the experience of mentoring and assessing a student in clinical practice. As the student was on a four week placement the assessment process will be discussed incorporating the qualities of the mentor and the effect it can have on the mentor/student relationship. In turn evaluating the learning environment and teaching strategies used including learning styles, reflecting on how they were applied to help the student. Finally, the evaluation of overall performance as a mentor. For the purpose of this work a pseudonym will be used to maintain confidentiality hence the student will be known as ’A’. ( NMC Code of Conduct 2007)

In health and social care there are benchmarks and standards that I can use to measure my own ability against, like the ‘care quality commission standards’ and ‘codes of practice’. By comparing my work against these standards I can improve on the areas that I am failing in, by setting goals of what I need to learn and targets to complete it by.

NCFE Level 4 Certificate in Leading the Internal Quality Assurance of Assessment Processes and Practice

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC 2008a), defines “the role of a mentor as someone who facilitates learning, supervises and assesses learners in practice setting.” The mentor is a key support to students in practice, this is where students apply their knowledge, learn key skills and achieve the required competence for registration.

Coaching and mentoring are not about learning to do something the right way, but are about helping to lead an individual to find their own way of doing it practically and efficiently. Coaching and mentoring sessions are guided with theoretical models, which help focus both the coach and the coachee in attaining desired outcomes for problem situations. However, even with the aid of theoretical models not everyone can coach another person. The first and far most important attribute of a coach is the ability to build relationships with the coachee

Criminologist James Fox of Northeastern University predicts that murders committed by teens will skyrocket as the population of kids 10 and under is higher than population of 21st century teens by 20%. (Stephens) Mentoring is the act of helping out someone that isn't as knowledgeable or experienced in different areas. The goal is to make them leaders. (Patterson)

4.4 explain how assessment arrangements can be adapted to meet the needs of individual learners

Teaching and learning in the clinical setting is not a new concept and the teaching of clinical skill to nursing student ranks high on the current agenda of nurse education (Pfeil, 2003). Therefore, has be the duty of teachers to continue to provide ongoing guidance during teaching and learning taking place. According to While (2004), the mentor is required to feel personally and professionally confident when assessing the student’s performance. This allows the development of the students will become better and more effective.

As a Registered Nurse I have had the opportunity to be a preceptor to a number of nursing students. I take this role very seriously as I am aware of the impact that my mentoring has on the students’ learning experience, competence and satisfaction

Mentors now have to be aware of the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement, NHS leadership Qualities Framework, which gives mentors clear instructions about their responsibilities (Kinnell and Hughes 2010). However, meeting these requirements alone will not make a nurse a successful mentor. Mentors have to plan and provide appropriate opportunities for teaching and learning activities, with clinical experience to achieve learning outcomes and develop professional competencies (Choun and Suen 2001). This will enable them to assess students performance,

An important aspect of training for student nurses is evaluating a student’s fitness to practice, which would require nursing students to exhibit their clinical and theoretical knowledge and skills, by professional standards (NMC, 2015). The NMC (2008) has laid out clear guidelines for mentors in the assessment of student nurses during their clinical practice, ensuring that students that are not fit to

It is difficult to evaluate ourselves and even more so others. Students focus upon the vocational skills of their mentor, meaning the skills which they actively observe their mentors practicing within their role. Once students learn to develop good interpersonal skills and build upon their professional confidence they can then build upon concepts for practice through regular self and peer evaluation. Promoting the practice of evaluation in the clinical environment is key to encouraging students and creating a positive culture. This can be achieved through discussion, spoke placement feedback, placement evaluations, patient caseload reviews, reflection, scenarios,role playing and learning from mistakes as thought provoking exercises. Bloom’s Taxonomies assist the mentor and student by defining the logical flow of learning and helping us to evaluate which stage of learning we are currently and the stage we aim to

Mentoring can be defined as “simply advice from a respected, experienced person provided to someone who needs help” (Heller & Sindelar, 2011, p. 7). Is that really all mentoring is? Is mentoring “simply advice” and if that is all it is, what is the point of teacher mentoring? If I wanted a new student in my class to be successful would I need to help them transition to my class and share with them the ins and outs of the class or would I just have them show up in a uniform and magically know what to do? As a teacher, I would have a list of items in mind all with the intention of supporting the new student and I would also have ways to monitor and continue that support with the goal of success for that student. Mentoring is a necessary part of any classroom or even for any job where an employer hopes to fill a position with a highly qualified person and intends to set them up for success. Catholic schools need strong mentoring programs that not only support the retention of highly qualified teachers but also mentor them in multileveled ways.

As part of my introduction, I would like to mention that my research project is about mentoring where I have chosen ‘questioning’ as my strategy. In this report, I will discuss in detail about my ‘Mentoring through Questioning’, which is a key for my research project report. Here, I will cover the project’s context in which it was set, my aims and focus of the project, my justification on why I have chosen mentoring through questioning and the types of questions being used during this project, in support of the relevant literature. And then eventually, I will mention about the interactive sessions between a mentor and mentee, the reflection or the perspectives, specifying the self-analysis as well as the required feedback from mentee as part of the research strategy. Later, I will conclude this report by mentioning about the effectiveness of mentoring sessions and the future actions planned for my skills development.