A Nurse Mentor Reflection in Clinical Practice Using Gibbs Model - Report Example

Mentorship: A nurse mentor reflection in clinical practice using Gibbs model I. Introduction According to Hink (2005), sharing information and insights is very important to pass on the knowledge from the mentor to the learner. In the field of nursing, mentoring is a very important process that enables the nursing community to improve the delivery of its services and promote the well-being of their patients (see Kuhl, 2005). Mentoring does not only benefit the learner or the protégé, it is also beneficial to the mentor. According to Benner (2001) novice nurses can benefit from the wisdom and expertise of the expert nurses and in return, the expert nurses can learn from the insights of the novice nurses. By nurturing the novice nurses, the expert nurses also get to rehash their skills and improve themselves in the process (see Kosier et. Al. 2004). A strong feedback mechanism between the mentor and the learner is also very important to facilitate proper transfer of knowledge and skills. As a qualified mental health nurse (RMN) working in a community mental health team and a student mentor who is training to be a mentor, I had the opportunity to work with a learner who is third year nursing student. In evaluating my experience as mentor, I will use Gibbs Model (Gibbs 1988). Gibbs model of reflection covers the following aspects (a) description of the activity, (b) my thoughts about the activity, (c) my feelings about the activity (d) evaluation, (e) analysis, (f) conclusion and, (g) coming up with an action plan (Gibbs 1988). I believe that the Gibbs model is an effective tool for in depth evaluation of my thoughts and feelings about a certain situation. As it is, I will apply the model to this essay to facilitate critical thinking, to document my learning experience and to use my learning experience in coming up with a personal development plan outlining how I can improve my mentoring skills. II. Description of the Event As mentor, I taught my protégé how to give depot injection. Although she had given insulin injection to patients before when she as yet a first year nursing student, she had not tried giving depot injection to a patient before. Since she has not given this type of injection before, I let the student observe the actual administration of the injection a number of times and asked her to practice on the hospital dummy that we have. After letting my protégé observe the actual administration of the injection, I told her that she can administer the injection to one of my patients. I selected a patient that my protégé has met before as her first patient. Luckily, the patient agreed to allow my protégé to administer his injection. On the day when my protégé gave her first depot injection, I demonstrated to her one more time as to how to properly administer the depot injection. I am aware that the student have observed this process several times before and she had practiced injecting depot on a hospital dummy but I just want to be sure that she has understood the whole process well so that I will no longer have to call her attention to details in front of the patient. I strongly believe that calling the attention of the learner in front of the patient does not help build the confidence of the learner nor does it inspire confidence on the part of the patient. After showing my protégé what to do, we both went to see the patient. Upon arriving at the patient’s room, I introduced by protégé and told the patient what is going to happen. I assured the patient that my protégé knows what she is doing and that I will assist my protégé in administering the injection. III. My Thoughts And Feelings On The Event Before my protégé administered the depot injection on my patient, I had two major concerns in my mind. First, I wanted to make the experience as stress free as possible for both the patient and my protégé. Second, I want my protégé to learn as much as she can from the experience and gain confident in doing her task. The patient in this case happens to have mild mental disorder and he is a bit excitable. Moreover, I was concerned about losing the trust of the patient in the event where my protégé commit a mistake in administering the depot. On the other hand, I was also concerned about the reaction of my protégé to the patient. Although my protégé is a very good student and she is capable of handling a patient, still, I did not want to expose her to a stressful situation especially that this was her first depot injection. According to Hawks J, Hromek C (1992), when a learner or a protégé feels threatened on his or her first attempt at an important task, his or her confidence may be compromised and it will be difficult for him or her to feel comfortable with the task in the future. During the administration of the depot injection, I felt tense and apprehensive. Somehow, I have put a personal stake on the success of my learner. I have this feeling that the success of my learner is also my success and the failure of my learner is also my failure as a mentor. Although I am confident that my protégé knew what she was doing, there was a moment or two when I wanted to intervene in the process but I restrained myself thinking that my protégé will not learn anything if I keep on intervening in her work. According to Shea, G. F. (1997), a good mentor knows when to let the protégé be and trust her to perform her task as instructed. Of course it was not easy to just observe the process and do nothing especially when I saw my protégé hesitate for a moment before administering the injection. However, intervening at that point would not do any good to my protégé. In fact, an untimely intervention on my part would have a negative effect on her confidence level so instead of taking the injection and administering it myself, I turned to the patient and talked to him about mundane things to give my protégé a little time to collect herself. Once I saw that my protégé was ready to administer the injection, I causally turned to her and asked her if she was ready to administer the injection. Once the task was done without any mishaps, I felt an overwhelming sense of relief. I went over to my protégé, patted her shoulder and told her that she did well. I believe that immediately praising the learner for a job well done is very important in mentoring. According to Mellish, E. E. (2001), giving immediate feedback and appreciating the good performance of the learner is very important to help the learner feel more at least with the task. Moreover, appreciation will not only uplift the spirit of the protégé, it will also strengthen the bond between the protégé and the mentor (Colwell, S., 1998). IV. Evaluation As a whole, I think that the activity was very successful. Despite the fact that my protégé hesitated for a moment before she administered the depot injection, she did not crumble under the pressure. As a mentor, I was glad that I let my protégé observe the administration of depot injection several times before I actually let her do it herself. Observing the process several times is very important to get the feel of it. Walking her through the process one more time before we went to see the client was also important to boost the confidence of the learner. The fact that my protégé hesitated during her first attempt at administering the depot injection was a turning point for me as a mentor. At that moment, I had the option to (a) call the whole thing off and let the protégé feel like a failure or (b) give the protégé breathing space and regain her confidence. Although calling the whole thing off would have been easier, I am glad that I took the second option and gave my protégé a chance to regain her confidence. The fact that my protégé knew that I was on her side empowered and helped her execute the task perfectly. According to Hink (2005), the trust and confidence between the mentor and the protégé is very important. When the mentor lets the protégé feels that she trusts her, the protégé will more likely to feel more confident about doing the task at hand (Caldwell, B. J., & Carter, E. M. A. (Eds.), 1993). The whole activity would not have been as successful as it is had it not been for the full cooperation of my protégé. My protégé willingly devoted extra time and energy to learn how to do the task. She was a keen observer and she asked questions from time to time. She was also open to suggestions and does not take criticisms on her job personally. These qualities made it easy for me to teach her how to handle patients especially when administering depot injection. V. Analysis According to Yoder (1990), there are three critical attributes to the concept of mentoring. These attributes are (a) structural role of the people involved (b) the role of the organization, (c) the career relationship development between the mentor and the protégé. These attributes of mentoring contributes not only to the growth of the protégé but also to the career growth of the mentor. Along this line, Stewart and Krueger (1996) came up with more comprehensive list of factors that can affect the overall outcome of the mentoring process. According to Stewart and Krueger (1996), there are six factors that attributes to the success of the mentoring process. These factors include (a) the teaching-learning process between the mentor and the learner; (b) the reciprocity of the relationship between the mentor and the protégé, (c) a career development relationship, (d) the fact that the mentor has something important to share to the protégé, (e) the time element involved and (6) the overall impact of the mentoring experience to the mentor and the protégé. In applying these factors to my mentoring experience, I can say that to a large extend, my learner and I have been success. She learned how to administer depot injection and how to handle patients while I learned the value of giving constant feedback and showing trust and confidence on the ability of my learner to perform a certain task. Second, the reciprocity of my relationship between me and the learner helped me grow as a person. Third, as mentor, I took on the responsibility of nurturing the learner and help her achieve her career goal which is to become a nurse. Fourth, the fact that I have been administering depot injection made it easier for me to help her learn the technique on how to inject the medicine into the muscles of the patient. Fifth, spending time with my learner helped build a relationship that is based on trust and confidence. Sixth, the learner and I were able to learn valuable lessons through the experience. VI. Conclusion Mentoring is a big responsibility but it can also be very rewarding. The fact that somebody grew through my tutelage was very fulfilling on my part. Aside from gaining personal fulfillment in mentoring, I also learned some valuable lessons of camaraderie and friendship. I realized that mentoring is a give and take process where both mentor and the learner grow to better professionals. VII. Action Plan I plan to study more about the techniques of mentoring and apply my learning to help my learners become better professionals. Moreover, I plan to share my experience with other mentors as well as listen to the experiences of other mentors. This way, I can broaden my horizon and be more effective at my job. Personal Development Plan as Mentor Activity Objectives Timeframe Develop a system of that will allow me to demonstrate to my learner my expertise To help the learner learn by observing and then doing certain clinical tasks To be done during the start of the mentoring program Provide feedback mechanism To provide a reflective practice that enables the learner to understand how and why certain decisions are made and how these decisions influence the outcomes of certain tasks. To be done all throughout the mentoring process Provide a support system for my learners To provide support through listening, befriending, and expressing positive expectations from the learner. To provide learning environment that helps the learner reach a certain degree of autonomy by developing his or her self-confidence, competence and sense of responsibility. To be done all throughout the mentoring process Encourage a collegial learning atmosphere To encourage free discussions and sharing of ideas and insights. To provide a learning environment that is mutually satisfying for both the mentor and the learner. Bibliography 1. Armitage, P., & Burnard, P. (1991). Mentors or preceptors? Narrowing the theory-practice gap. Nurse Education Today, Vol 11, pp. 225-229. 2. Benner, P. (2001). From Novice to Expert: Excellence and Power in Clinical Nursing Practice. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall. 3. Caldwell, B. J., & Carter, E. M. A. (Eds.) (1993). The return of the mentor: Strategies for workplace learning. The Falmer Press, London. 4. Colwell, S. (1998). Mentoring, socialisation and the mentor/protegee relationship. Teaching in Higher Education, Vol 3, No 3, University of Sheffield, UK. 5. Gibbs, G. (1988) Learning by Doing: a guide to teaching and learning methods 6. Hayes E, Harrell C. (1994) On being a mentor to nurse practitioner students: The preceptor-student relationship. Nurs Prac Forum 5:220-226. 7. Henk, B. (2005). Mentoring: What’s It All About? Notes from a Navy Leadership presentation held in Bremerton, Washington in February. 8. Kozier, Bl, Erb, G., Berman, A., & Snyder, S. (2004). Fundamentals of Nursing: Concepts, Process, and Practice. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, Inc. 9. Kuhl, L. (2005). Closing the Revolving Door: A Look at Mentoring, Chart, Journal of Illinois Nursing, 102(2), 9. 10. Mellish, E. E. (2001). Appreciative mentoring: The appreciative series. Mellish and Associates, Queensland. 11. N. H. Busen & J. Engebretson (1999) : Mentoring in Advanced Practice Nursing: The Use of Metaphor in Concept Exploration . The Internet Journal of Advanced Nursing Practice. Volume 2 Number 2 12. Roberts, D. (2003). Mentoring: The future of nursing. MEDSURG Nursing, Vol 12, No 3, p.143. 13. Shea, G. F. (1997). Mentoring: How to develop successful mentor behaviours. Crisp Publications Inc., Menlo Park, CA. 14. Stewart B, Krueger L. (1996) An evolutionary concept analysis of mentoring in nursing. J Prof Nurs 12:311-321. 15. Werner, J. (2002). Mentoring and its potential nursing role. Creative Nursing, Vol 8, No 3. 16. Yoder L. (1990) Mentoring: A concept analysis. Nurs Admin Q1990;15:9-19. Read More