Examine the significance of the practice enhancement role of the mentor on the facilitation of learning in your current place of employment.
Mentoring has been described as a process that helps an individual adapt to new and expanded professional roles. Mentoring involves a nurturing relationship between a mentor and a mentee. Mentoring occurs when a senior person (the mentor) provides information, advice, and emotional support for a junior person (the mentee) in a relationship lasting over an extended period of time and marked by substantial emotional commitment by both parties. The mentor takes an active role in the professional development of the mentee. “Inherent in the concept of mentoring is a personal, one-to-one, nurturing relationship between the mentor and the mentee” (2001).
Mentoring has been an effective strategy in many disciplines, including all the health professions, to develop expertise and leadership within the profession. The traditional concept of mentoring involves a voluntary alliance between an experienced senior professional and a less advanced one, for the dual purposes of career development and the enhancement of the profession. It is impossible to separate mentoring from learning. Mentoring or teaching is an interactive process that promotes learning in an individual. It consists of a conscious, deliberate set of actions that help individuals gain new knowledge, change attitudes, adopt new behaviors, or perform new skills (2004). Mentoring usually highlights interpersonal skills such as being ‘approachable’ and ‘supportive’. This is not to say that mentors do not see skills more directly associated with learning as necessary, just less important ( 2000).
The nursing literature shows the consensus seen in other disciplines regarding the concept and value of mentoring. The focus for mentoring in nursing has shifted over the past 3 decades, paralleling the emerging concerns of the profession; current emphasis is on mentoring in research. This growing national and international need generates concern about the necessary resources to effectively mentor researchers (2002).
Mentoring is a special way to transfer knowledge, and it can occur in all the settings in which scientific inquiry is being deliberately pursued. Development of nursing science is the foundation for the growth of the nursing discipline and profession. Knowledge development takes place in the various settings in which nursing is learned and practiced. The processes and products of knowledge-work belong in academic environments for many disciplines but the practice professions both use and create their knowledge beyond traditional scholastic settings. Practice professionals continually merge their knowing with their doing (2002).
Nurses have an ethical responsibility to teach not only their clients but also other health care workers. The nurse has the responsibility to teach the information that other health care workers need. The nurse also often clarifies information provided by physicians and other health care providers and may become the primary source of information needed for adjusting to health problems ( 2004).
Assessing and adapting educational information and approaches to the needs and preferences of the health care support workers enhances the success of educational efforts. Not all individuals are comfortable in class settings or in support groups. Educational programs that use these methods should have other educational opportunities available to the health care support workers that needed to be educated. Nurses must at all time also remain creative and responsive to other health care workers when providing education.
In this paper, I will discuss the significance of the practice enhancement role of the mentor on the facilitation of learning in my current place of employment – the out-patient department of a local hospital. I was tasked to educate health care support workers in the new skill of suture removal.
How do you teach the skill of removing sutures to health care support workers? The developmental capacity has to be first considered in selecting the teaching method to be used. Since all the health care support workers are already adults and would each exhibit responsibility and discipline, many methods would actually be applicable for them.
As a nurse, I am a primary member of the health care team responsible for ensuring that all the educational needs of clients as well as other health care workers are met. However, there are some cases where the needs are highly complex. Thus, the choice of instructional methods depends on the learning needs, the time available for teaching, the setting, the resources available, and the nurse’s own comfort level with teaching ( 2004). As I already know the skill of suture removal, I am comfortable that I can teach them this.
Nurses may choose to teach health care support workers and clients in groups because of the advantages associated with group teaching. Groups are an economical way to teach a number of individuals at one time, and they would also be able to interact with each other and learn from the experiences of others. Groups can also foster the development of positive attitudes that help health care support workers and clients meet learning objectives. This is what I have reflected by using the group teaching technique in educating the health care support workers. They can learn from what I teach them but they can also learn more from each other.
Group instruction often involves both lecture and discussion. Lectures are highly structured and are efficient in helping groups of health care support workers and clients learn standard content about a subject. A lecture does not ensure that learners are actively thinking about the material presented; thus discussion and practice sessions are essential. After a lecture, learners need the opportunity to share ideas and seek clarification. Group discussions allow health care support workers to learn from each other as they review common experiences. A productive group discussion helps the participants solve problems and arrive at solutions toward improving each health care support worker’s improvement.
To be an effective group leader, a nurse must be able to guide participation. Acknowledging a look of interest, asking questions, and summarizing key issues foster group involvement (2004).
Demonstrations are most effective when learners first observe the mentor and then during a return demonstration have the chance to practice the skill. Nurses usually use demonstrations for teaching motor skills; however motor skills are not learned separately from attitudes and factual knowledge. A demonstration should be combined with discussion to clarify concepts and feelings. This is what I had in mind when I employed demonstration and discussion within the group of health care support workers. An effective demonstration requires advanced planning:
Teaching during routine care is actually efficient and cost-effective. Teaching is done more effectively whole delivering the skill. This becomes easier as confidence increases in one’s own clinical skills. For example, while actually performing suture removal on a patient, I can provide explanation on what is being done. But the catch of this is that the patient may not appreciate being made an example to a group of health care support workers for their education and learning.
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