Student Nurse Mentorship Challenges
Mentorship, the guidance of student nurses by qualified nurses during their clinical placements, is the cornerstone of student nurse education. A recent study led by the National Nursing Research Unit (NNRU) at King’s College London, has shown the complex and resource intensive nature of the support needed to deliver mentorship in practice, and the challenges and debates mentorship faces in a rapidly changing financial, organisational and professional climate.
The project, which was undertaken in collaboration with Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, involved interviews with 37 senior personnel in two London Higher Education Institutions as well as a sample of their NHS partner organisations. It formed part of NHS London’s ‘Readiness for Work’ programme.
Dr Sarah Robinson, Visiting Senior Research Fellow with the NNRU and Lead Researcher, said:
“Our research showed that delivering mentorship in practice depends on a range of trust and HEI personnel involved in a complex network of inter-related activities that included: accessing and developing practice areas as suitable learning environments; having sufficient numbers of adequately prepared mentors and sign-off mentors to match student numbers; support structures for mentors and students in practice; and a range of updating and monitoring activities to ensure that standards meet those stipulated by the Nursing and Midwifery Council.
“One of the key themes that emerged was the importance of close partnership working between HEIs and healthcare providers. Practice-based posts in trusts and HEI posts with a link to practice were central to many of the processes involved and their knowledge of practice settings and personnel informed much of the decision-making about capacity. In the rapidly changing environment, a willingness to be flexible and creative are also essential.”
The report is particularly timely given the recent publication of the Willis Commission report on the future of nursing education, which draws attention to the crucial role of mentors in the education that student nurses receive and the training and support that mentors require to fulfil this role.
Dr Robinson continued:
“Although much is being achieved, the staff we spoke to highlighted numerous challenges facing mentorship. Frequent changes in service organisation and delivery can disrupt long standing relationships and the commissioning process was seen as sometimes at odds with relating student numbers to placement capacity. There were also concerns that the time link lecturers spent in practice was under pressure and that funding for the all important practice-based trust posts might not be sustained.”
The research highlights important debates that are required about future directions for mentorship: how to sustain funding for practice based posts; the cost effectiveness of a move to increased on-line course provision; and how to meet NMC standards when time implications had not been costed. There were diverse views about the future role of mentors. Some argued that being a mentor is an intergral part of the role of all nurses and the only way of providing mentorship for the numbers of commissioned students. Others maintained that it is time to develop mentoring as a specialist career pathway for fewer staff with dedicated time to spend on the role. There were also differing views on the future roles in the provision of mentorship of HEIs and trusts, which is particularly important at a time when both organisations are under increased pressure.
Dr Robinson concluded:
“Given the centrality of mentorship to the preparation of the next generation of nurses, the challenges it faces and the very diverse views held about future directions – the next stage is for the profession and the statutory body to discuss and debate the findings and develop a blueprint for the future.”
Robinson S, Cornish J, Driscoll C, Knutton S, Corben V and Stevenson T (2012) Sustaining and managing the delivery of student nurse mentorship: roles, resources, standards and debates. Final report for the NHS London ‘Readiness for Work’ programme. National Nursing Research Unit, King’s College London.