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An evaluative study aimed to capture the ‘mentor voice’ and provide an insight into the mentoring role from the perspective of the nurse mentor. Participants from each of the four fields of nursing practice were asked to comment on the satisfying and frustrating aspects of their mentoring role. The narrative data gleaned from the evaluation were qualitatively analysed and subsequently organised into key themes around the student–mentor relationship and the clinical environment. Given that the landscape of nurse education is set to change, in terms of new standards from the professional bodies and the political drivers, not to mention the changing profile of the student nurse, it is hoped that the findings may help to shape the relationship between the mentor, the student and the higher education institution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nursing and midwifery mentors are fundamental to the process of ensuring future practitioners are adequately prepared and supported during the practice element of their degrees. However, there is evidence to suggest that the infrastructure and support for the mentoring role is not always adequate. This article provides a review of some of the issues including the emotional labour associated with supporting pre-registration students, difficulties in accessing protected learning time for mentoring, and lack of supportive networks for mentors to develop within the role. The authors make recommendations on what is required to ensure that the mentor role is better acknowledged, supported and resourced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

bradbury-jones c., irvine f. & sambrook s. (2010) Empowerment of nursing students in clinical practice: spheres of influence. Journal of Advanced Nursing 66(9), 2061–2070. Aim. This paper is a report of a study exploring the empowerment of nursing students in clinical practice. Background. There is a great deal of literature regarding empowerment in nursing but most focuses on the empowerment of patients and registered nurses. There is very little regarding the empowerment of nursing students. Of the limited available studies, most explore empowerment in an academic, rather than a clinical context. Methods. This longitudinal study was underpinned by hermeneutic phenomenology. Thirteen first-year nursing students were recruited using a purposive sampling strategy. Annual, in-depth interviews were conducted with the students on their trajectory from the first to third year of the undergraduate programme. Data were collected between 2007 and 2009. Findings. By the end of the study, most students felt more empowered than they had at the beginning. They attributed this to increased knowledge and confidence. Empowerment of nursing students in clinical practice can be represented in the form of ‘spheres of influence’. Intrinsic, essential structures of having knowledge and confidence are at the core. External spheres influence the extent to which nursing students are likely to experience increased knowledge and confidence, and thus empowerment. However, nursing students use a number of strategies to promote their own empowerment in clinical practice. Conclusion. Efforts to promote the empowerment of nursing students in clinical practice need to be multi-layered and targeted at each of the spheres of influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The clinical development of nurse practitioners (NPs) has historically been dependent on mentorship from medical practitioners, yet their experience of this mentorship is generally unexplored. NPs have an ambiguous relationship with medicine as they have been dependent on medical mentorship to develop clinical skills, and they substitute into roles additionally associated with medical practice. Consequently, NPs challenge professional boundaries and present particular concerns to their medical mentors. Practitioner ethnography examined the experiences of medical mentors, nurse practitioner students and academic staff during a clinical degree programme. This paper reports specifically on the medical mentors, focusing primarily on their professional authority relationship with their students and on their experience of imparting and sharing clinical knowledge. These experiences fell into three perspective stages, the provisional perspective, transitional perspective, and final perspective. Medical mentors were instrumental to the advanced clinical role of the student NP. This resulted in a conflicting experience of promoting a clinical role that challenged traditional medical authority. The effect of this was a cautious renegotiation of professional boundaries. In future NP students (and their academic teachers) need to acknowledge this if they are to mutually gain the most from their relationship with their medical mentors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is the second in a 3-part series describing the RWJ Executive Nurse Fellows Program, an advanced leadership program for nurses in senior executive roles who aspire to help lead and shape the US healthcare system of the future. Part 1 (October 2005) described the program, its core leadership competencies, and the primary components. This article discusses the mentor experience that is a cornerstone of the 3-year fellowship program. Fellows are encouraged to have this experience with senior-level executives outside of healthcare in order to broaden their leadership perspectives. Examples of these mentor experiences are described from the viewpoints of both fellows and mentors, including successes, challenges, and lessons learned. Part 3 (February 2006) will explain how fellows are required to create a business plan for their leadership project because it is so important for nurse leaders to offer a strong business case for proceeding with anew initiative, service, or program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses how a preliminary analysis of a mentoring environment can help develop ways of understanding those being mentored. Exercises for mentoring patients; Description of an educational environment; Several questions to be asked by students and fellow professionals on mentoring.

Health care providers in the United States are faced with delivering care to an increasingly diverse population. Nursing leaders and their respective organizations long have recognized the need to prepare nurses who understand the effects of the growing global community. Inclusion of cultural content in theory courses and clinical assignments in diverse settings are two ways to increase student nurses' cultural competency. This study explored the experiences of nursing students and faculty mentors who sought to increase their cultural competence through participation in a short-term immersion learning project in Central America. Analysis of data gathered through interviews and journal entries identified three themes—being "other," "I was already a nurse," and expanding my worldview. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the need for health facilities in the U.S. to develop an effective mentoring process for new nurses in February 2006. Employment trends in the nursing profession in the U.S.; Concept of a mentoring program; Objectives of a mentor relationship.

John Fowler, Educational Consultant, explores CPD for the clinically based nurse, looking at the qualities that make a good mentor and the times in a nursing career when mentoring is particularly helpful [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Elizabeth Rosser, Deputy Dean (Education and Professional Practice) and Professor of Nursing at Bournemouth University, describes the experience of taking part in a global mentoring programme [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the importance of research mentoring in psychiatry, both in practicing and educating. According to the author, who also works as a mentor, it is important to bring a developmental perspective to mentoring because students have different needs at different points in their development as psychiatric investigators. Such a perspective also allows one to be cognizant of the so-called "pipeline" issues in psychiatric research, namely, that there are relatively few young people who aspire to be research psychiatrists and that efforts at early recruitment and retention are critically important. The author suggests that, the critical roles of research mentor in psychiatry include acting as role model, facilitator of professional socialization, adviser on specific roles and career paths, promoter of scholarly values and scientific integrity, nurturer, teacher educating about rules and skills, and advocate.

The article summarizes the article, the Role of Mentors in Supporting Pre-Registration Nursing Students, by H. Collis Pellatt, which was published in an issue of the British Journal of Nursing. The article is a literature based discussion of the development of the mentor role and what it entails. It looks at the implications for practice of the role and highlights the accountability of the mentor. It also addresses the many facets of the mentor role and recognizes the difficulties they face.

Reports on the lack of mentors for black and minority ethnic (BME) nurses in England. Effects of the lack of mentors on the progress of BME nurses; Comparison between the progress of BME nurses and that of white nurses; Remarks from Kathy Sienko, deputy director for learning and clinical development at West Middlesex Hospital, on the importance of mentorship.