Mentors: An Analysis of Roles, Responsibilities and Duties - Essay Example

?Mentors: An Analysis of Roles, Responsibilities and Duties Introduction People often believe that politicians need to be extremely careful when planning for the entire population relying on them. The reason of such a belief is the complexity of the nature of issues that politicians deal with. Their decisions not only affect the entire population living under their reign but also influence their life style, living standards and health. The responsibility of people’s life, health and living standards, thus, somehow is associated with the officials of the state. So, one may conclude that the professions which affect the way of living, health and other important issues related to general public are of greater importance as per the ethics principles as well as the requirements of the concept of humanity. The most important professions that should be listed in the list include healthcare. Healthcare profession requires dutiful nature of the professional, his loyalty with the profession, experience, proper knowledge of the issue he is dealing and responsible nature. Hence, the courses related to healthcare field incorporate certain practical experience requirements before registering a person as a healthcare professional i.e. a nurse, a doctor, a surgeon or so on. Mentoring is one of the basic practices which are used to aid learning. The concept of mentoring is no longer a mystery. It has established its roots in almost every field today. Healthcare profession is one of the sorts which have taken great advantages by using mentoring as a prop to support education and learning. Mentoring is strongly incorporated as a regular practice or process of preregistration education curriculums. Policies like 2008 NMC mentor standards & standards of proficiency for pre-registration nursing education provide simple and direct guidelines to understand the role of a mentor, his responsibilities, duties and criteria to be met in order to become an official mentor. There is a line of distinction between a mentor, a lecturer and a tutor (Carnwell et al. 2007). Mentors are required to focus their attention on individual learners, whereas, the other two are more inclined towards fulfilling a cumulative responsibility of assessing and completing the milestones of curriculums and to aid the learning environment. Hence, the distinction lies in the fact that mentors are concerned with the progress of the learners not the learning environments or not to limit their responsibility to fixed course guidelines, curriculums and so on. The standards and policies related to associating a person as a mentor are provided to distinguish it from similar roles. There are certain overlapping responsibilities of the related roles to that of a mentor, yet, the distinguishing characteristics need to be understood to effectively perform the duties of a mentor. The responsibilities of a mentor are redefined by the department of Health (2001) as a health professional who encourages learning, oversees the performance and appraises the learners within a healthcare environment (English National Board for Nursing, Midwifery and health visiting & DoH, 2011). NMC (2008) reasserts the responsibilities of a mentor as professionals who aim at encouraging learning, supervising learners and assessing their performances within a practical healthcare environment (Gopee 2008). A research indicates that a mentor is obligated to nurture the learners, concentrate on their professional development, build a relationship of care with and between them, and act as a role model, teacher, companion, motivator and supporter (Kerry & Mayes, 1995). Billay & Yonge (2004) add three more characteristics to the role of mentor including those defined by Kerry & Mayes (1995). These three additional characteristics are defined as having excellent communication abilities, well-informed in the specified field and being up to date with the doctrine of adult education. Mentor as a Role Model Mentors are supposed to be role models for mentees. Mentoring is the process whereby mentees are given a chance to observe closely every move, practice and habit of the mentor. The practical working experience not only allows them to have a realistic view of issues within the clinical setting but also helps them to attain a level of experience. The main idea of mentoring is to provide the inexperienced with a chance to gain experience from the expert advices and manners of the mentors (Mohanna 2011). The inexperienced nurses, doctors and other healthcare professionals cannot be allowed to learn from their own mistakes as the healthcare profession provides a exposure to complex situations. The subject matter for healthcare professionals is the health and life of people which makes the concept of mentoring even more important in their field. Owing to the practical learning environment provided by mentoring, it can be associated to the social learning theory of Bandura (1986). This theory was also known as ‘observational learning’ or ‘modeling’. The theory suggests 4 basic learning procedures under such settings. These procedures include Observation, Mental Retention, Motor reproduction and Reinforcement and adoption (Ziegler 2005). Hence according to the social learning theory, mentor acts as a role model who is observed by the inexperienced healthcare professionals. The mentees are required to keep their focus on the way mentor deals with situations, patients, other staff and tackle with problems. The observation phase leads the mentees to view the mentor’s practices and habits. The similar activities and ways of mentor in every situation lead the mentees to mentally retain certain practices. They move on to the motor reproduction phase and try to use the retained information in the situation they face or observe within the clinical setting. Their mental mapping helps them to understand how situations and issues are dealt with. In the final stage of learning they Reinforce and adopt the learnt practices. This practical learning environment, hence, provides a realistic view and experience to the mentees. They gain confidence and experience at the same time which later on helps in maintaining their professionalism. In explaining the term role model, Faugier (2005) asserts that they are people who we follow, have a high regard of and adore as experts. Gopee (2007) translates role models as ‘exemplary’ people who can be followed due to their proficiency in adhering to the professional requirements, code of conduct, attitude, skills and professional principles. Hence, mentors being role models are supposed to be perfect in their practices and attitudes. The mentor in healthcare profession, for instance, is required to have the qualification, experience and skills which are clearly mentioned in the NMC (2008) framework. Mentor’s Role in an Inter-professional Working Unit Taking an acute mental health unit as an example of an inter-professional working unit, one can easily view mentor as a role model. An acute mental health unit is a separate unit arranged for inpatient care of those suffering from acute mental illness. The mental instability of the patients within the acute mental health unit requires more care on the part of the whole multidisciplinary team. This unit, hence, employs inter-professional working practices where psychologists, nurses, administrative personnel and other professionals work together. This unit, hence, collaborate people with different clinical knowledge and work responsibilities together. Working in multidisciplinary teams is not an easy task to manage. There are various misunderstandings, issues, lack of cooperation and working barriers which need to be managed. Mentors help in developing certain skills including communication, management and conflict resolution to aid learners’ ability to tackle conflict situations. NMC (2008) requires 40% of the mentee’s time to be spent working under the surveillance of the mentor to support effective learning. A mentor, through his practice, provides a better insight into the practical affairs within the inter-professional working unit. Mentor helps in attaining a higher level of understanding to his distinctive professional duties as well as respecting others’ rights and obligations. He guides the learners towards a path where individuals perform their tasks and responsibilities without hindering the progress of other professionals. Mentor guides the mentees towards following procedures and practices that are in line with the collaborative goals of the multidisciplinary teams of providing higher quality healthcare services. The major skill that a mentor develops in the mentees through inter-professional working environment is the ability to work in teams (DoH 2009). Mentors, enabling students to work with inter-professional teams, aid their pace of learning. The evidence-based practice further encourages the practical experience and learning where students understand the practicability of the learnt concepts, beliefs, ideals and skills (NMC 2008). The practical exposure to patients, their illnesses, miseries and disease give them a proper guide towards the promotion of their professional behavior. The role of mentor, hence, is not only to guide the mentees on acquisition of a proper professional judgment but also to have a proper attitude with patients, clients, professional healthcare providers, nurses and other lower level staff. The need to provide a quality output within an inter-professional environment can only be fulfilled by proper collaboration of the multidisciplinary team members. Mentor provides a professional and experienced advice and guideline for the learners to follow (Burton & Ormrod 2011). Role of Mentors in Change Management Globalization has brought about many changes in the modern environment. The diversity of population brings in certain advantages in every field. The educational standards and qualifications of one country are transmitted to the other either by immigration or the exchange of information over the internet. The trade regulations and international business opportunities have made all products available to all people around the globe. People are no longer forced to attain a career or product which they do not want. They have choices to move to a different country for education and trade purposes. They are free to acquire an imported product easily within their home market or order it online. These changes, however, are not free from difficulties that they are forced to face. The concept of illegal immigration, for instance, has created problems for the governments to manage and plan for the necessities of population living within their states. It has become difficult to maintain quality of healthcare for every person. The diversity has further brought in the communication and cultural barriers which are often difficult to handle. In the healthcare setting, people from different lingual, ethnic or cultural background pose threat to the level of care that can be provided. The beliefs of different people are often hard to understand and accept. The diversified population is difficult to be included in the policies easily. The sense of being discriminated and disenfranchised further increases the tension within a multidisciplinary team. The healthcare institution not only faces troubles due to the staff but the patients and other clients are also from different backgrounds. Hence, the communication and interaction between the staff and outsiders also turns out to be difficult to handle (Ali & Panther 2008). The inter-professional workplace does not consist of people from similar backgrounds and beliefs. The people working in a multidisciplinary team have conflicts in their views, standards, thoughts, ideas, cultures, and way of dealing with situations and so on. The major barriers that staff and associated people face include communication differences, cultural diversity, religious differences, gender bias and differences in dealing with patients and others (Koutoukidis 2008). These barriers may harm the effective learning and working environment. The lack of proper medium and mode of communication hinders the change management process. If the mentor fails to provide clear instructions to the mentees, it is more probable that their work efficiency and outcome will deteriorate. In addition to it, this alone will be responsible for a discouraged mentee who will, probably, not be able to have confidence in him for a long time. Clear communication and instruction under change management phase are of immense help. A discouraged team cannot move the efficiency and output level up to the new standards and this might result in the failure of the change management programme. The mentor is responsible to identify and clearly define the responsibilities to the team members. If the learners are unable to understand their responsibilities, they will definitely not be able to fulfill them. Since the mentor is overburdened with responsibilities and duties, he might reduce the time to explain things and might rush the instructions. In such circumstances where overburdening the mentor leaves a gap in his responsibilities and the outcomes of his efforts it becomes difficult to achieve the change management aims. Mentors are obligated to assess and review the performance of the mentees, and under change management scenarios it becomes difficult to identify the potentials of the mentees as the new system may be a reason for the deteriorated performance of a mentee. The new system or change of policies may have flaws which might result in wrongful assessment and appraisal of mentees. Hence, change management in healthcare settings is not as simple a job as it seems to be. It requires proper planning, design and implementation plan. One of the major barriers for mentors when dealing with change within a multidisciplinary team is the time constraint. Mentors have so many responsibilities and duties to perform that at times they do not get enough time to explain things. They focus more on patient care as it remains on the top of their priority list (Canham & Bennette 2002). The change management in a healthcare setting is complex. The reason is that it is a difficult task to handle the services, quality and schedules at the time when change was being implemented. The responsibilities on the mentor increases in the time change are being implemented. The learners may not be able to cope up with the pace of the changes being made. Mentors need to contribute their firm commitment to their duties and job. Recommendations and Conclusion In order to overcome the barriers in the way of effective mentoring, an organization must plan for the duties, responsibilities and management of the mentoring process. The mentors should also be assessed as per their performance during the implementation and review the results with those projected. If the variations of results are higher than acceptable, the reasons to such variations need to be identified. The plan, in accordance with the achieved aims, should be revised. On the other hand, Mentors must encourage mentees on improvement rather than being discouraged by the appraisal reports, if negative. The barriers like communication hurdles need to be properly incorporated when designing a business communication plan. The communication process may include written, oral and visual features to aid the communication process. The mentees may understand their duties and responsibilities by either oral guidelines or a tabulated list of written responsibilities. In order to avoid instances where the mentor is forced to rush one of his responsibilities to fulfill others, the organization needs to set a fixed number of mentees to work under one mentor’s supervision. In conclusion, we can assert that mentoring is a practice that gives a practical insight to the learners in the healthcare fields. It is a concept by which students may be inspired by the professionals and their loyalty. The inspiration of their role models may lead them to follow the same track and reach the level of a good healthcare practitioner. Bibliography ALI PA, & PANTHER W. (2008). Professional development and the role of mentorship. Nursing Standard (Royal College of Nursing (Great Britain) : 1987). 22, 25-. BILLAY DB, & YONGE O. (2004). Contributing to the theory development of preceptorship. Nurse Education Today. 24, 566-74. 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