Mentoring: Nursing and Concept Analysis Essay

Every semester students came to the surgical department for their personal and professional development. Certain members are assigned to develop the personal and professional Knowledge of the students. The mentor explains the duties and responsibilities of the nurses working in the surgical department. This semester I took up the responsibility to become mentor and associate mentor of the students. In order to understand and gain in-depth knowledge of the concept I decide to take up this subject for the study and research. Mentors are entrusted with greater responsibility and they are persons who are preparing tomorrow’s health care organisations. Mentors are responsible for preparing the younger generation to render safe, high quality healthcare to the society. If the mentor knows their subject well with deep and current knowledge and able to prepare the students well, then the mentoring is successful and mentor can feel job satisfaction and assume that tomorrow’s health system is in the safe hands. In early years of nursing, mentoring means to teach the person how to perform particular activities. In 21st century the focus of the mentoring is to develop the whole person to provide holistic care to the patient (Reed &Ground 1997) . So I take up this concept for more in-depth study and research to prepare and develop the core members of the health system. The finding suggest that mentor programme is an important aspect of nursing , when it render properly it enhances better personal and professional development. Method:-Walker and Avant’s concept analysis approach was used. Literature reviewed from 1980 to 2009. Words: Mentoring, Mentorship, professional development , Nursing  Historical Importance in Literature Cooper and Palmer(1993) mentioned about the origin of the word mentioning. In encient Greece young males to be guided with older,experienced males who were often relatives of friends of the family. The world mentor originated from the Greek Mythology, where mentor was a nurturing, educative, protective family friend developed the young boy professionally, personally and socially. His father Odysseus was fighting the Trojan war(Cooper & Palmer 1993). The term mentor is used in medicine, law and business but did not appear in nursing until the early 1980s( Andrews &Wallis 1999) . Florance Nightingale was the first mentor . In her personal letter, she adopted a motherly supportive relationship to her students. (Grossman 2007). Mentoring has become an important aspects of nurse education and clinical supervision ( Cooper &Palmer 1993). A mentor is a registered nurse, who facilitates learning, and supervises and assess students in the practice settings and helping to acquire new behaviours and attitudes(UKCC 1999). Mentorship refers to the relationship between two or more individual trying to establish professional development and safe practice . Mentorship is seen as broader, longer term harmonious relationship established between teacher and the student (Jarvis & Gibson 1997). Theses mentors had responsibility for inducting students to their clinical setting planning their learning agenda and assessing their progress. Mentors in other words were student’s key informants to the setting (Spuse 2003) The complex, intriguing concept of mentoring continues to bother authors and researchers from a variety of different disciplines as they explore the role of mentors in a range of settings that include the health, education and business arenas (Grossman 2007). Mentoring has become a high profile topic in business women’s magazines, the press and nursing, and it is beginning to find its place in current teacher preparation, and the medical profession ( Grossman 2007). Mentoring is a special role adopted by a suitably qualified member of staff who is prepared to offer support, teaching and assessment for student nurses in the clinical settings(Davis et al,1994). According to David et al(2010) Mentoring can involve a transfer of knowledge, patterns of behaviour, skills and an approach to an accumulated body of knowledge. The concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English defines a mentor as an experienced and trusted advisor’(Cooper & Palmer1993). Introduction Mentoring is a word often used by doctors, academics, the media, arts, and business people(Cooper &Palmer(1993). Now a day in nursing, this concept has an important place, in clinical area as well as education area. For Nurse teachers, nurse mangers, clinical specialists, community oriented nursing practices this concept is used to gain personal profession development. In surgical practice settings mentoring is often used to transfer the knowledge, values, and customs to the younger generations. People are selected to become mentors, but many times this concept and its uses, qualifications are not understood properlyCooper & Palmer 1993). McKenna & Sutcliffe (2007) says concept is a special vocabulary used for explaining things, events and activates of importance in the personal and professional life. The authors continue to explaining that analysing these events and activates and things are very important for the development nursing theory and quality practice. According to Chinn and Kramer (1995) theories are constructed from well developed concepts and concept analysis is used for the theory development. The writer see that policies and procedures are written, rewritten and reimplemented again and again in order to get more and accurate clarification(Mekenna &Sutcliffe2007). In the same way concepts are analyses. Studies again and again to become more acceptable to the present situation. And also concept analysis gives more clear meaning and correct direction to the fractioned . McKenna& Sutcliffe (1997) comments that if the concept is not clear it serves no purpose, and any work based on the particular concept become unclear and vague. So, this study aimed at presenting a concept analysis of mentoring using Walker and Avant’s framework (1995)cited Mckenna 2005). This study is also explains the method and characteristics of the concept. So that the nurses who practice mentoring have greater understanding of the process and able to provide the service in an effective manner. This may also help the nurses to exchange professional meaning and organisational values in a better way. Section of the concept: Mentoring According to Onchwari & Keengwe (2009) Mentroing provides more benefit than other professional development programme like workshop, seminars. Mentoring is a form of personal and professional partnership which is usually involves more experienced person guiding the less experienced person, who is new to the job, profession or practice area (Sambunjak & Marusic(2009). Earlier the vocational basis of nurse education experience was enough to become supervisors, teachers and assessors to students. More recently the concept of mentor entered in the nursing education. And the nursing educational standard changed to become more advanced. According to Peter & Neil (2000) without dedicated preparation the qualified nurses will be unable to take up specified functions competently and this could affect the learning process of the students. In hospital now some people are assigned and trained to be mentors to the students. They have undertaken specialized courses to become mentors and now they are promoting personal and professional development of the student and newly appointed staff. Historically most of the nursing institutions are operated by very strict rules and regulations. Nursing boards used to visit regularly to make sure the appropriate standard are maintained. All the students are guided by assessors or teachers and these teachers are highly respected. Nurse’s undertaken training under the strict directions of these teachers. And most of the nursing studies done in the hospital. It was not university based. The student used to follow exactly what is taught. In 1980s and 1990s the system started to change. The importance of more personal professional development has come to the profession. The role of nurses started to change and nurses needed to take up more organisational and management responsibilities. (Alison & Palmer 2000). The human development initiatives of the 1970s(Eng 1986) and the acceptance of freedon to learn approaches and adult learning theories of Rogers(1983),Kolb(1984) and Knowles(1984) cited Alison &Palmer(2000). The resulting shift in educational systems has led to find various ways of learning strategies that are directed towards making the most of human potential and stimulating learning in practice (Alison & Palmer 2000). The changes are very clear in the health system. New technologies arrived, the expectation of the society are high. In order to respond effectively to the changes, the nursing profession has undertaken new strategies and teaching methods. People are more and more responsible for self learning and their professional growth. Professional is directed towards self learning and seeking guidance if necessary. Adults are built in motivations to learn and a need to gain self confidance,self esteem and self awareness. These are important attributes for any profession, especially caring profession(Alison and Palmer 2000). Why is mentoring important to Nursing? Stewart and Krueger(1996) conducted a concept analysis of mentoring in nursing suggest that its strongest relationship is as a â€Å"teaching-learning process for the socialization of nurse scholars and scientists and the proliferation of a body of professional knowledge†(Cited Alison & Palmer 2000). Nursing profession is a practice based profession. Nurses need to transfer values, customs, and practical knowledge to others through mentoring. Through mentoring the quality of the profession is maintained and aim is achieved. Through mentoring nurses are connected and learning from each other, so that the new knowledge and technologies are shared. People who have gained knowledge through mentors appreciate role of a mentor. It is known that nurses who have been mentors tend to mentor others( Fagan &Walter 1982). Fagan & Walter(1982) have found that nurses who have been successfully mentored are more likely to mentor others when compared to those with little or no mentoring experience. Nurses can mentor each other and new graduates and students. Faculty members are mentoring students in their learning process of evidence based ractice . Doctoral student receive mentoring regarding their research . Nurse executives can mentor nurse mangers and nurse mangers can mentor staff and it goes on where ever the nurse working (Grossman 2007). They are mentoring others in one or another way. Most of the nurses think that mentoring as a mechanism for career advancement(Grossman 2007). Grossman (2007) continue to say that nurses need to think arbour their carer expanding through mentoring and gaining knowledge in order to broaden their vision in life. Mentoring can greatly benefit the profession by expanding nursing knowledge and rofession(Grossman2007). Clinical nurse specialist and clinical nurse researcher role are good opportunity to expand the nursing science knowledge. Through patient assessment nurses are able to diagnose the situation and do more research into it to acquire in-depth knowledge regarding the particular situation. So that nurses can stand alone in their own profession and can provide high quality nursing care to the patient. Every nurseling staff has a responsibility to assess,plan,implement and evaluate the highest quality care for patients. By encouraging the mentoring culture nurses can work more smart and able to work with full ability. A vision of the mentoring culture in nursing holds exceptional promise for nurses, the profession, the organisations that employ nurses and most significantly patients(Grossman 2007). And all nurses develop mentoring skills, so that they can be effective leaders in every health care delivery system and have more influence in generating positive patient outcomes in health care(Evans & Lang, 2004).