The Role of the Mentor In Organising, Managing And Leading Programmes of Learning In Clinical Education - Essay Example

?The role of the mentor in organising, managing and leading programmes of learning in clinical education As one of the dynamic activities in the world today, clinical practice requires substantial knowledge and learning enhancement activities. From organising, managing down to leading programmes, mentors play crucial tasks in these areas. They need to ensure that learning is ensured at its best at the highest possible level. Not only that, patients are becoming sophisticated which makes them to demand highest possible quality care that they deserve. This means more strong efforts towards obtaining optimum learning are needed for mentors to substantially explore or initiate in order to make sure quality transfer of knowledge with their learners. This would lead further to excellent patient care in the long run. This would lead further to excellent patient care in the long run. In this essay, the topic about management and leadership role of mentor is discussed. In this paper, the proponent tries to give emphasis on the importance of mentors in organising, managing and leading programmes of learning in clinical education particularly on the leadership aspect which involves facilitation, supervision, assessment, and support particularly in the hospital environment. The first point in organising, managing and leading programmes of learning in clinical education is facilitation. Facilitating learning is very important, as its very nature is very complex ranging from different aspects of the body of knowledge. Learning from the behavioral perspective is a changed of behavior; and it is associated with changes inside of a person from cognitive perspective (Brockbank and McGill, 2006). Learning is one of the most important things to acquire in this world. It is essential because it is viewed as the result of how humans adapt to their environment (Murre, 1992). In nursing career, educating others is an essential intervention which also depicts the importance of learning (Bastable, 2008). In nursing, mentoring is necessary and the role of mentors is simply as facilitators emphasising learning in an effective and practical way. Adult learning can be well facilitated using experiential learning, which means acquiring substantial knowledge can be appropriately achieved out from somebody’s significant experiences. In fact, one of the most familiar adages puts it, “Experience teaches us best.” This can be further elaborated from Kolb’s theory of experiential learning. Illustration 1: Kolb’s cycle of experiential learning (Quinn, 2000). In this theory, Kolb’s emphasised four generic adaptive abilities to reach effective learning and these involve concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation (Quinn, 2000). Furthermore, in clinical education, another important point in facilitating learning is about providing strategies for effective clinical teaching (Gaberson and Oermann, 2010). However, facilitation alone does not prove to be sufficient to ensure learning at the highest level. Supervision in learning in clinical practice is a must. Aside from facilitating the students in their learning in clinical education, mentors have the role to supervise them. This supervision is evident on the supervision cycle model of Goldhammer and his colleagues in 1980. Regarding this supervision, it is an integral part of educator’s role (a) to initiate pre-observation stage which establishes rapport, reviews plans and discusses and rehearses changes; (b) the next stage is about educator’s actual observation of the session and taking into account noting issues for future discussion; (c) the third stage is about the analysis of the data that educator’s gathered from observation and consequently followed by strategy planning for feedbacks; (d) finally, both educator and student should initiate individual analyses and undergo plans for modification (Rose and Best, 2005). Supervision therefore is a hands-on activity that tries not only to facilitate learning, but more so in giving emphasis on experiential and tacit knowledge (Gould and Baldwin, 2004). It is about knowing what the students expected to learn in the first place (Austin and Hopkins, 2004). Facilitating and supervising learning in clinical education are not enough to effectively ensure that the learners have obtained essential things to learn in this field. Mentors in the field of clinical education, particularly in nursing are ensuring competence of their students (Stuart, 2003). The very reason for qualifying examinations in nursing is to test whether the students are competent enough to proceed and pursue in their career in nursing. In the UK, nursing students are obliged to undergo series of assessments for the following reasons: quality control, entry into the possession, motivation of students, and to support teaching and learning activities (Stuart, 2003). Assessment is necessary in order to measure the level of learning obtained by the learners prior to implementing necessary measures to supplement and improve it. Thus, assessment is important because it tries to measure the level of progress of the learner (Miller et al., 1998). So far, the three activities required in order to facilitate learning in clinical practice are substantial in clinical education. However, it would be more effective to include another activity. Support in clinical practice is more on addressing the needs of the students (Gopee, 2007). This is the very point that each mentor should take into account prior to formulating important support activities for the students in clinical practice. All the above stated learning programmes require leadership skills on the part of the mentors (Gopee, 2007). In this way, mentors would learn to plan, create dynamic advocacy to the needs of their students, prioritise support of their students and provide feedbacks for future improvement (Gopee, 2007). These days, excellence in clinical practice is highly associated with nursing leadership (Daly et al., 2004). Clinical experts are needed in order to address the increasing body of knowledge, clinical information and skills in the field of clinical practice (Marshall, 2010). All of these issues substantially consider that mentoring is a crucial task particularly in areas where learning has to be optimised. For instance, evidence-based practice in healthcare is a form of leadership in using research to ensure learning in clinical practice (Houser and Oman, 2011). This requires substantial knowledge and the mentors are expected to formulate the best learning programme prior to imparting the actual knowledge that each learner should be required to receive. Clinical leaders in nursing can be those nurses who employ the best nursing practice based on extensive and cumulative knowledge they have (Benner et al., 2011). Mentors therefore are considered important agents in the learning process involved in clinical practice. They are there to ensure that the transfer of knowledge is successful creating more significant proficiency on the part of the learners. Their specific tasks in the process of the knowledge transfer are crucial because it would mean they need to facilitate, supervise, assess, support and stand in general as leaders in the learning process involved in clinical practice. The proponent is a staff nurse working in a busy ward who is receiving constantly students from various Universities to mentor them. Ward manager’s obligation is to introduce these students to each of their allocated mentors and after that they have to start working with them. These students from the first time they work with their mentors may probably have developed anxiety or fear. However, in the case of the proponent as a mentor, the duty is to make them comfortable through a good introduction and friendly approach. Now, the mentor has to ensure everyone has to work as a team so introduction to other staffs, nurses, doctors, physiotherapist, dietician, occupational therapist, tissue viability nurses and others. In case of the absence of the mentor, the allocated co-mentor will handle them. It is therefore clear that the first move a mentor could initiate in order to make the students effective is to provide them the environment which they can make their practice. A friendly approach in another thing a mentor can possibly give by sitting first with the students and conduct an interview to each of them. It is at this point that a mentor could negotiate the objectives as well. It is important that a mentor just like the proponent should be able to know what year the students are studying so as to set a fair expectation and objectives based on the information they will give. Every end of the shift, a mentor should be able to take a time with the students to evaluate what they learned within the day and in order to supplement learning by teaching them further what they need to learn more. A staff nurse just as the proponent of this paper or as mentor should act to be more responsible in the busy ward. The mentor has to particularly initiate proper planning, time management especially in times of difficult situations, and above all high leadership capacity. After the initial interview, the mentor should conduct a middle interview. The purpose in doing this is to know whether the student achieves the objectives that the mentor set before them. In this way, the mentor may be able to achieve detailed information from the students if they actually achieve the objectives. Next to this is the final interview which is a step prior to the formal turn over of the students. Below are respective approaches which seek to give students the necessary experience and competence in their future based on the fundamental role of mentors in clinical practice (Quinn, 2000; Rose and Best, 2005; Stuart, 2003). Let us start with negotiating and agreeing a learning contract with a student. In order to negotiate and agree a learning contract with a student, the mentor should be able to understand the very nature of the learning process of the student. Under this purpose, the management of time is necessary and as mentioned earlier, arranging the whole activity and time with the students on the first encounter, arranging shits and others should be the remarkable activities. This can only be achieved through effective facilitation of learning as the entire activity seeks to understand the very nature of individuals on how they learn things. In this regard, the mentors are able to understand exactly the needs of their students. It would be hard to negotiate or agree a learning contract with a student if in the first place the mentors themselves do not have clear ideas on what the students expect to learn, and even their entire capacity to gain knowledge of things in clinical education. On the other hand, supervision is also necessary as this would eventually help the mentors to integrate their actual observations with a certain concept on how the students would learn effectively. Let us now discuss regarding planning a program that maximises the opportunities for learning in hospital area. As a staff nurse and as a mentor, managing resources, identifying learning resources like journals and people are integral components in this activity. In addition, facilitation of learning is necessary in this activity as this would help create a very effective program that is sure enough to achieve substantial learning in the end. This at some point is a specific strategy in clinical teaching. In doing this, students will experience the actual situation to analyse, observe and learn things. However, they need to be supervised in the process so that they will be guided accordingly in the entire process. The good thing about this combined effort of facilitation and supervision is to make certain that the actual information in the entire learning process in clinical education is obtained. Thus, it would be easy to plan a program that maximises the opportunities for learning especially in hospital area for instance. Facilitation and supervision at some point are based on actual experience and it is therefore important to understand they have significant power to help the mentors to come up with a good plan for programs that will be able to maximise learning in hospital area. However, this plan needs to be evaluated as well as to be supported especially in its implementation process. Planning is a specific skill therefore that requires integrating actual learning of the mentors that would specifically tell about their experience. Inter-professional opportunities are other concerns. These specifically involve experiences and opportunities in managing patient care to enable the students to achieve one on one teaching and learning experiences, making good relationships with other professionals so to involve them in the student's learning, arranging visits or learning experiences. Mentors therefore should be keen enough to facilitate such kind of this learning while integrating in the whole process all the knowledge and necessary ideas which are tantamount to their effective implementation. Exposing the students to actual situation like attending doctor’s rounds could be very beneficial. This would not only enhance knowledge but above all it would really ensure learning because it would be an actual experience. However, supervision could be another essential element in order to ensure learning inter-professionalism in the hospital environment. Students need to be guided accordingly which at some point would prove the integration of support. However, students need also to be evaluated as this would help the mentors understand the level of their learning regarding inter-professional opportunities in hospital environment. In this environment, students are expected to learn complex behaviours which could be encountered from the patients and colleagues. For instance, this can be actually experienced if students are allowed to work with occupational therapists for instance. In here, they would be able to witness the patience and other important things needed in order to ensure professionalism at the workplace that at some point was not taught in class. Managing the assessment process so that there is time for continuous feedback and identifying if the student is progressing is another important concern in student’s learning process. It is true that meting the challenges and difficulties presented to the mentors while supporting students in practice is another important area of concern. This is the bottom line of support system. Whatever will happen, and any challenges may arise, mentors are expected to provide their best support with their students. Not everyone for instance is equipped to critically observe and reflect on specific situations, issues, or some field or body of knowledge. For example, not everyone has a good idea when it comes to understanding human behaviour. In clinical practice, it is the needs of patients that should matter above all, but these can only be addressed if clinical practitioners have the appropriate understanding and are sensitive about the human behaviour. However, it seems that the very challenge in this area is finding for the right foundation and even a point of reference to which detail the learners may only rely on their mentors. Managing the situation if there are other concerns involved is another important move in student’s learning success. For example, enhancing the learning of students in the hospital area requires placement area analysis. This means mentors are not only there to facilitate, supervise, assess and give their support, but they should substantially consider the remarkable strengths and weaknesses of their students in their specific placement area. Mentors therefore are expected to conduct analysis and even specific forms of research. Students prior to becoming certified professionals in the clinical practice should undergo necessary learning, but they should not acquire this by themselves. They need mentors to teach, train and above all to support them prior to achieving their individual future objectives in life. Mentors therefore are expected to put their best foot forward as leaders which have substantial ability to facilitate, supervise, assess and support learning at the highest level as possible. References Austin, M. J., and Hopkins, K. M. (2004) Supervision as collaboration in the human services: building a learning culture. London: SAGE. Bastable, S. B. (2008) Nurse as educator: principles of teaching and learning for nursing practice. 3rd ed. London: Jones & Bartlett Learning. Benner, M. S. P., Kyriakidis, P. H., and Stannard, D. (2011) Clinical wisdom and interventions in acute and critical care: a thinking-in-action approach. New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company. Brockbank, A., and McGill, I. (2006) Facilitating reflective learning through mentoring & coaching. London: Kogan Page Publishers. Daly, J., Speedy, S., and Jackson, D. 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