The Importance of Embracing Effective Working Traits - Essay Example

? Critical Analysis who’s Standard of Practice is a Cause of Concern   Introduction Gopee critically analyzes the standards by The Nursery and Midwifery Council NMC (2008). These are standards to support assessment and learning of students in their nursing placement period. NMC has set standards to ensure an ongoing training, education and professional development in the clinical domain. Gopee (2011) defines a mentor a “registrant whose role is to facilitate learning, supervise and assess students in learning or practice settings” This essay critically explores the management of a student/ learner whose standards of practice are of cause for concern. The researcher looks at the importance of embracing effective working traits such as establishing resourceful working relationships, learning facilitation that includes an analysis of the learners’ needs or causes is a cause of concern. The paper also looks at the development of an action plan (a delivered structure) and the people involved in this activity. In order to achieve these the paper critically looks at the underperforming student needs, evaluation of their learning, and assessment and accountability to mentors and what should be done in order to meet those needs. First, the author looks at the mentoring and the challenges encountered by between the mentor and learner in the clinical environment while the mentor is evaluating the teaching and learning process of the students. Management of a Student/Learner who’s Standard of Practice is of Cause for Concern NMC is the nurse regulator and its role is to protect the public by keeping a nurse’s register and setting the NMC standard that should act as guidelines for the nurses training, education, performance, conduct and ethics (NMC, 2008). The purpose of the standards is to act as a tool for the council in which they are assured that those who are involved with making judgments to the students are fully prepared in evaluating the student’s performance in relation to the set NMC standards. Attainment of the standards leads to qualification of a student and registration of the same in the register (NMC, 2008). The standards of mentors in terms of the roles that they are required to achieve in assessing and supporting students taking the NMC pre-registration education programmers. Hence, student’s practical performance on these programs are assessed continuously and supported by mentors throughout the period of placement. According to the NMC standards, 40% of the time of the students should be spent in being supervised by the mentors. The mentors are registered in an assessors register and those not entered in the register can only conduct student’s assessment under guidance of someone in the register (Aveyard, et al 2011). According to Schober and Ash (2006) successful mentoring should be goal oriented the major goal being the focus on development of the learner’s knowledge, skills and attitude. Thus the learner is needful that have a development plan before meeting interacting with the mentor. It is a proven fact that many learners do best by observation and when they are being assessed. The role of the mentor involves ensuring that the students are welcomed and oriented thoroughly in the clinical environment. The mentors also supervise and coordinate the teaching of students while in the clinical practice. Mentors are responsible for providing inter professional opportunities for students to learn. They are also the ones who should ensure that students are getting the appropriate opportunities to learn required knowledge and skills in the placement and give provide feedback to the students on their level of performance. Mentors are required to keep and review the progress of the learner, be accountable and act as a professional role model. All trained nurses are required by the NMC to facilitate teaching of their students as part of their professional role failure to which, impacts not only the clinician and the students but also the clinical colleagues and nursing profession as a whole (Stuart, 2007). Mentoring is what is used as basic learning experience for all the nurses (Aston and Hallam, 2011). Nurses are therefore expected to have the capability to teach and train students so as to impart them with the necessary lifelong skills and knowledge in the ever changing system in healthcare. Because of the continuous changing nature of healthcare industry, a career in this field therefore requires one to have a culture of continuing professional development. In the same manner, mentors should be in a position to provide safe and high quality care to the students while supporting them in their learning (Cassidy, 2009). According to Wilkes (2006) a mentor in practice placement has an important role and establishing an effective relationship with colleagues and students is essential.  However, a friendship may improve achievement of the students this form of relationship can be subjective in terms of the mentor’s assessment thereby making students to be unable to demonstrate true competency. Alternatively, a negative experience or relationships can have unfavorable effects on both the mentor and students by affecting the performances of the mentor and his/her mentoring responsibilities where student’s learning experience can suffer from a non-effectiveness of the mentoring. However, the relationship of the two parties need to be constant for example, student seeking mentor on the other hand offers help to the student as a trusted adviser. Rogers cited in Laird (1985), developed facilitative learning theory which this concept is based upon. Rogers in his theory believed that learning happens when the teacher acts as a facilitator, and establishing a comfortable atmosphere that allows students to learn stress-free. Beskine (2009) states that “the responsibility of establish a healthy and effective relationship between the student and the mentor lies with the mentor” The first step towards establishing this relationship starts when the student reports to the environment and the mentor is required to orient him or her to the practice placement and teaching them the ground rules of the setting. Orientation therefore is an important starting point where the ice between the two parties is broken and a positive start is created. Being such an important element, orientation should therefore not be taken casually but should be a planned event because it influences the quality of the practice placement, the future experience of the student in the setting and the learning process of the student there. However, it has been found that in clinical practice it is a common phenomenon for students to have poor relationships with their mentors and to have traumatic placement experiences. When a student is first assigned to a mentor, the purpose is to make them feel welcomed and to establish a good and suitable working relationship with the mentor (Price, 2006). Hodges (2009) suggests that “an effective mentoring relationship is instrumental in helping the student to improve on their confidence and self-esteem as well as to motivate them”. Hence, the student’s career development starts at this initial stage of orientation and continue to help them to reach their potential an outcome that even the mentor gets satisfaction, recognition and furthermore development when it is achieved. However, it is important to understand that in the clinical environment, the mentor-student relationship will not always be harmonious, but sometimes disagreement is apparent which is also useful because it helps in strengthening this relationship even more through reflective engagements. However, in some cases, in an event that a student does not have a successful relationship with the mentor has been the cause of concern. An unprofessional behavior on the part of the student may be the cause of the breakdown thereby leading to a struggle in the learning environments (Price, 2006). Sometimes the mentor may discover that a particular student do not have the capabilities to work effectively in a team, which is an essential element in nursing the placement. In such a case, the mentor should maintain a professional approach to handle the situation without being prejudice or allowing their emotions to overrun them. The participation of a link tutor may be indispensable in order to avoid a recurrence of unwarranted behaviors from the students. However, if a fruitful relationship is not realized and conflict proves to be difficult to resolve, the student are at liberty to change mentors (Hodges, 2009). Hence, it is failure to establish a good relationship may be suggested as the reason for the failed mentorship. In order for a mentor to facilitate a leaner effectively and impart them with the required clinical skills and knowledge, due regard becomes an essential element. Gopee (2011) states that for a mentor to achieve this then they need additional skills through the teaching sessions and structured learning activities, in an appropriate environment setting. The mentor has the responsibility of ensuring that the desired learning outcomes are met based on the student’s learning needs, scenarios, simulating situations, questions and create a conducive learning environment for the student. These calls for a joint research between both the mentor and the student in order for the student to demonstrate the necessary skills and competency through verbal explanation, or guided practice with or without supervision. To enable the student to acquire new knowledge and skills, the mentor is required to prepare an action plan and a learning contract that is based on student’s goals and modules in accordance to the student’s style of learning (Rassool and Rawaf, 2007). A learning contract is for facilitating a discussion of goals, which helps organize the responsibilities of the student and the mentor as well as to clarify the expectations between the two parties (Hodges, 2009). The individualized action plan can be the basis or reference for a more structured mentorship experiences. Therefore, to provide positive and effective educational outcomes, the mentors should also have their own structure of teaching and learning to be incorporated in a combination of the different learning styles. Anderson, states that a dual learning style for a mentor plays an important part in the development of skills (Anderson, 2011). The same author also states that regular feedback from students and weaknesses acknowledgements and achievements is a form of helping students have a clear awareness of their progress. The findings above are based on several theories some of which are discussed in this paper. Knowles et al (2011) identified six dimensions of learning: the learner’s need to know, previous experience of the learner, learner’s self-concept, the learner’s readiness to learn, learner’s orientation to learning and motivation of the leaner. Adult learners are said to be self-directed which is the central concept of andragogy, putting emphasis on the student to take personal responsibility in their learning. Kolb cited in McGill and Beaty (1985) in his adult learning and research came up with four-stage learning process often referred as the experiential learning cycle. He discovered that people learn in four ways, that involves: (1) concrete experience, (2) observation and reflection, (3) abstract conceptualization and (4) active experimentation. A written document (The learning contract) has been adapted against the student’s performance.   Bastables, (2008) suggests that the explicit purpose of a learning contract is to focus on these elements: what the learner needs to learn, methods and tools, resources needed, how, where and when the student needs to achieve goal. However, for the underperforming student, the mentor is required to make some “reasonable adjustments” and adopt different strategies. These considerations must take into account the need for giving the leaner more time, emotional aspects of the leaner and different work settings (Morris and Turnbull, 2005). The learning contract therefore might be required to be might need to be broken down broken into smaller steps, with manageable strategies and objectives regarding the student’s disabilities. According to the Disability and Equality Act 2010, a mentor is bestowed with the responsibility of ensuring that a student is not treated less favorably because of their disabilities and failure to take appropriated procedures to achieve their learning goal. Under this category of underperforming students’ category, there are students with dyslexia, mental related difficulties and visual impairment.   White (2007) in her research included the following distinctive difficulties: reading and writing reports, organizational skills, retaining information and instructions, succession of activities and emotional factors. However, as stated earlier a mentor might can consider a unique approach for each student in the basis of the disabilities and needs. The mentor is not required to make assumptions, but should flexible, adapting to the needs of the student and referring to the link lecturer and university for information and advice. They should be capable to anticipate the areas where the learner needs help for each of the difficulties mentioned. This may mean having an action plan that allows for extra time with the student. The mentor should avoid giving too much instruction and information at ago to such students, have patience with the student, be a good listener, provide explanations, and be supportive as they encourage the use of other sources of information. Conclusion Stuart (2011) refers to the clinical environment as the place where patients are looked after to help have wellness. Learning in clinical environment can be full of challenges some of which this paper has looked at (Moscaritolo, 2009) These are the challenges that might cause students to perceive anxieties and stress. However, this is also a place where clinical activities take place and the environments is also vibrant where the students get professional skills and knowledge and interact with other professionals. Due regard is an essential element in their learning to make the clinical environment become an educational environment. The students are under the duty of adapting and adjusting to that clinical environment amidst the unpredictability involved. Some research has suggested that time spent in a clinical placement is three times more than in a classroom which may have some effects of stress and anxiety on the students. Therefore, standards such as according to NMC require more attention and support be given to the students in order to facilitate their smooth learning process (Moscaritolo, 2009). The mentor therefore should ensure fully integration of the student into the team and that adequate opportunities to work in the team are given the leaners. Feeling welcomed and acceptance in the team can help the student develop confidence and working together with professionals can help them to become competent gradually. Bibliography Anderson, E. & Shannon, A. (2005) Ed. 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(2007) Enabling learning in nursing and midwifery practice, a guide for mentors. Retrieved: http://www.dawsonera.com/depp/reader/protected/direct/AbstractView,readerButtons.eBookView.sdirect?state:reader/protected/AbstractView=BrO0ABXcMAAAAAQAABWVpc2JudAANOTc4MDQ3MDY5NzkxNw%3D%3D Read More