Sections'Mentors have a lasting impact on students'
Making the transition from student nurse to fully qualified and autonomous practitioner is probably the biggest and hardest step to take in a nursing journey.
This is the subject of our research report on page 12. Throughout training, students will always be supervised, their thinking double-checked and their decisions rubber stamped - ultimately a safety net is in place.
And while there will be excitement at being able to make their own clinical decisions there will also be some fear, understandably.
The first time you see a patient on your own is probably a bit like the first time you drive a car solo after passing your driving test. Suddenly there is no one in the passenger seat telling you when to brake, change gear or switch lanes. The decisions are all yours - and if you get them wrong they can have serious consequences.
If you’re mentoring a student or supervising someone who only recently qualified, spare a thought for how daunted they must feel.
Often I hear criticism of students that they graduate “unready” to work in nursing. Increasingly this is put down to the shift to nursing degrees, despite the fact that many nurses still qualified at diploma level. There are nurses who complain that university has not prepared them to tackle the situations they will find in practice.
If you’re mentoring a student or supervising someone who only recently qualified, spare a thought for how daunted they must feel
One alternative is a return to completely vocational training - but is that really the best solution? While it may not disadvantage those who train in a large teaching hospital too much, wouldn’t it make it harder for those training in smaller trusts to be exposed to a range of specialties, the latest equipment and advances in care?
The truth is that university is only half the story. Students and newly qualified nurses rely on their placements and then their supervisors and mentors to increase their knowledge.
Happily, I know there are lots of excellent mentors out there who manage this process and transition well. Our Student Nursing Times Awards opened for entries at the end of last year, and Mentor of the Year is full of excellent role models.
Their input should not to be underestimated - good mentors create good nurses, and bad ones vice versa.
When the reins have to be dropped, the examples set to students will stay with them and guide their practice as well as their attitude.
● Feeling inspired? Then why not enter the Student Nursing Times Awards, the deadline has just been extended to 30 January. There are categories for all students, mentors, placements and teaching providers to enter. Good luck.
Jenni Middleton, editor
jenni.middleton@emap.com. Follow me on Twitter @nursingtimesed
Mentoring is my strongest point in my nursing career. This is the only skill that actually gets me a good comment from senior nurses. I received a christmas card from a senior nurse who was expressively commendable about my helpfulness. I like my students and I do my best to help them to be comfortable and CONFIDENT in their role. I never denied them the opportunity to seek out other learning opportunities. Students are no spare hands on deck. Not in my book. I honestly would not wish any student to have to encounter some of the experiences I encountered while in training. These experiences were in no way related to difficult learning styles or were they some means of getting me to learn nursing 'the hard way'. These were nurses behaving badly to students and deliberately underminding and damaging confidences. At times , I would set my own objectives and look and learn. This is true of my experience During my third year, I had a manager who once shouted at me in front of the whole ward because she picked up the wrong phone. I told her that there was a call on the phone at the far end at the nursing desk( the direction she was coming towards) She ran and picked up the phone closest to her. I still remember my mentor looking at her in disbelief. In the frst year, I asked the nurse 'why?' She looked puzzlingly at me 'What year are you? First year, first time'. I said. 'Then you should know' she snorted. In my second year, I asked the nurse 'How? 'You are a second year'. She shouted. Since then, I stopped asking. I LOOK. I LISTEN AND I READ AND REFLECT I HAVE GRADUALLY BECOME A CONFIDENT NURSE OVER THE YEARS. After graduating with a diploma in adult nursing, I did a top up degree course which offered mentorship as a module. I believe that mentoring students is a shared task and should include as much imput from other multidisciplinary teams as possible.
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"'Then you should know' she snorted." a response which makes my blood boil!
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