Professional development and the role of mentorship Essay

Professional development and the role of mentorship - Essay Example Walsh (2010) asserts that successful mentors are those that foster growth and development in others. Indeed, within the broader precinct of education, mentors can be defined as guides and advisors in the learning process. Various scholars are of the view that mentors provide enabling environment to students in practice setting (Carnwell et al., 2007). Mentoring is core aspect of healthcare profession that serves as critical linkage in forging constructive relationships and developing skills and competencies of individuals to improve and improvise their performance. Department of Health (2001:6) describes it as ‘nurse, midwife or health visitor who facilitates learning, supervises and assesses students in the clinical setting’. As such, mentors identify and evaluate core competencies of students and help exploit them for improved performance. It is especially true for pre-registration of healthcare workers and RNs so that they are better equipped to face the challenges of the times. Hence, effective mentoring guides young nursing professionals to identify and develop their competencies for higher healthcare delivery. Role of mentor is critical aspect in the transition of students into the registered healthcare professional due to huge shift to responsibility and accountability of the changing position. Gopee (2011: 9) claims that role of mentor in nursing education is to ‘direct focus on enabling students to gain safe and effective clinical practice skills during practice placement’. He has broadened the framework of mentorship by not only expanding on the definition of DH and including the mandatory qualification and experience of registered nurses as defined by NMC but also by elaborating on the expected roles of mentors within clinical setting with context specific experience and qualifications. NMC (2008) describes eight major roles of mentors: preceptor; assessor; clinical educator; clinical supervision; clinical supervisor; Practice teacher; registrant, supervisor. Preceptor has basic minimum qualification of twelve months’ experience who facilitates students’ tra nsition to registrant (DH, 2010). These have therefore becomes vital aspects of mentors. The assessor is equipped with essential skills and knowledge to assess students’ competencies. The Clinical educators, clinical supervision and clinical supervisor help the nursing students to enhance their skills in clinical setting through effective feedback. 3. Importance of mentoring Carlisle et al., (2009) emphasize that mentors’ role as practice education facilitator (PEF in short) and personal or link tutor is vital in nursing paradigm. They have described them as teacher in nursing and midwifery who encourage students learning experiences in practice setting by assessing their skills through feedback, guidance and reflective practices. Personal tutor and link tutor are often allocated to individual students to monitor their progress and coordinate with mentors on a regular basis. In healthcare education, link tutors have evolved as essential components of practice sessions. They pace their teaching as per the students’ competencies in terms of their learning experienc