Experiences of mentoring in primary health care settings : registerd nurses' and students' perspectives

Abstract

This research provides an in-depth case study of eight undergraduate nursing students and eight Registered Nurses' experiences of mentoring during clinical placements in general practice. Each student was supported in practice by a Registered Nurse Mentor (RNM) for three weeks. It was found that students' exposure to working in a completely foreign environment led to feelings of isolation and high levels of anxiety. For some students, anxiety was related to RNM's not valuing education in the same way as the students. In three cases, previous mentoring experiences had been so stressful that students had considered giving up nursing and these students approached their new placement with a great deal of apprehension. For the RNM' s they were both teachers and learners, and to manage their roles they employed a number of strategies to facilitate the learning process. All RNM's had started mentoring without any training and they learned how to be a mentor by trial and error. They were enthusiastic about mentoring, although this role added considerably to their busy workloads. Mentors were aware of balancing their responsibilities to each student and client when working as a RNM. They also relied on the support of colleagues and Otago Polytechnic clinical lecturers to ensure that students received the best clinical experience available. Important to this study was the requirement for the RNM to assess students. Failing the clinical placement meant repeating the whole course and this created some tension in the mentor- mentee relationship.