The views and perceptions of students and mentors regarding mentorship role - Dissertation Example

The shortage of nursing staff has simultaneously reduced the faculty available for mentoring. However as peer mentoring has been found to be a feasible solution to the many challenges by several researchers there is no other option but to enforce practical solutions. The promotion of the concept of peer mentoring provides an overall answer. The stress on education and the burden on the limited number of faculty could be lessened through increasing the opportunity for peer mentoring. Mentorship or preceptorship has become an essential strategy of nursing education for the preparation of nursing students for the profession (Smedley, 2008).

Researchers have made suggestions to overcome hurdles and promote peer mentoring. Nurses could mentor other nurses and students could mentor their juniors apart from the usual concept where lecturers and nurse educators mentored nursing students (Dennison, 2007). The mentors were to be supported by other staff and clinical colleagues. Exceptional academic and clinical skills determined whether a nurse or nursing student could be a mentor. The vast literature on the subject of mentorship, which kept changing its features, has opened my eyes to this problem of mentorship in nursing needing speedy resolution.

The future of nursing, quality care and client satisfaction depended on the ethical practices for assessment of the clinical abilities or skills of a nursing student (Gopee, 2008). The general trend highlights the vital role of the clinical staff nurses in the mentoring of students into competent leaders of the future and custodians of safe and efficient patient care. However the problem that nurses have not fully grasped the significance of their roles. The paper tells that a significant requirement of nurse education was the presence and support of a preceptor who played a key role in the integration and growth of nursing students towards the profession.

The benefits of the learning experiences were mutual for both the preceptor and the student nurse. The hospital, the community and mental health centers were the different settings where the guidance of the preceptor had a role in shaping the student nurse for further experiences in the profession. Her observation and supervision enhanced the abilities of the student and equipped them with problem-solving habits. Socialization was the technique that the preceptor used to help the nurse student to notice the link between theory and practice, a great responsibility.

The preceptor meanwhile has her own experience of being a successful preceptor adding a new feather in her cap. The preceptor’s selfless attitude in nursing would be emulated by her students and this further instilled in her the power of her additional responsibility and prowess in her profession. The preceptor planned the time management, prioritization of care and delegation of work. Smedley and Penney had advocated a preceptor’s course for registered nurses which improved their skills for preceptorship to produce a learning relationship in their work setting.

The mentored nursing students would advance in professional skills, elevating their knowledge and gradually changing their attitudes to the profession through an action-learning process.