The mentor

Every student who is to gain a clinical placement learning experience has to have a named mentor (mandatory requirement of the NMC (2008)) who will be their main facilitator of learning, their supervisor and the assessor of their practice. All mentors should be experienced nurses who have completed a course of mentorship preparation or have an equivalent qualification in their own field which is recognised as being appropriate to supervise and assess student nurses in practice. (This latter individual will only be able to undertake this role in specific placements and not at the major progression points in the new NMC (2010a) guidance for curriculum delivery.) It is the mentor who is responsible for assessing your learning and competence in practice. As well as your practice assessment document, the mentor will also complete your ongoing record of achievement (ORA) (NMC 2007). (See Box 4.1 for an example of the mentor role and expectations of you as a student in relation to the ORA. Please note that this is only a very brief version for illustration purposes and that all universities will have different and very detailed practice assessment documentation.)

Box 4.1 Example of possible guidance notes for students and mentors during a placement

The assessment process

Week 1

  Student MUST negotiate with their mentor a time for their initial interview to discuss learning needs and goals and agree an action plan for achievement.

  Student MUST share with their mentor their ongoing record of achievement from any previous placements and any action plans resulting from their last assessment of learning in practice.

  Student will ensure that mentors are aware of any non-practice assessments they need to complete which may require their support for achieving, such as a client-focused assessment or evidence-based practice on a placement-specific topic.

  Student may also have additional practice-based assessments to achieve in the placement, such as medicine management, handwashing skills or (ward/patient care) management.

Mid-point placement experience

  Student and mentor will ensure that they meet to discuss progress at some point halfway through their placement experience and also to determine if any actions from previous placement (ORA information) are being achieved. Evidence of progress will be gathered from a range of sources, including student skills record/practice assessment documents, other qualified nursing staff (registrants) and other health workers in direct contact on a regular basis with the student.

  Student MUST receive constructive feedback from their mentor at this point and also on an ongoing basis. Their mentor must ensure that the student is being taught new skills and gaining new knowledge through ongoing evaluation of learning and any deficit from their original agreed action plan can be re-negotiated if required. This mid-point meeting is an essential one for the student who may require additional support from their mentor to achieve successful completion of their practice assessment in this placement.

Final placement period

  Student and mentor MUST meet during the final week of placement and a suitable time agreed. (The importance of this final placement assessment is critical for those students in their final placement as their practice will be required to be assessed by the sign off mentor.) All evidence must be available about their progress on the placement and all documents available for discussion and signatures. Self-evaluation may be required as part of their practice assessment documents.

  It is at this stage that the student has to offer clear evidence that they have achieved their goals, met the required NMC competencies for the placement and a record made of their overall performance during their placement.

Ongoing record of practice assessment could indicate decisions by the mentor such as:

  Achieved: all outcomes achieved competently, safely and professional behaviour appropriate.

  Not achieved: although some outcomes achieved, the student’s overall performance has not met the required standard or achieved required NMC competencies for this placement.

  Student and mentor discuss the outcomes and agree subsequent actions according to university policies.

Your main mentor will be supported in their role by a number of other appropriate personnel and, in some placements, more senior student nurses will take an active role in the teaching and support of students as part of their role in transition learning outcomes.

Sign off mentor

The role of the sign off mentor is to ‘sign off’ a student’s proficiency in the NMC Standards and Competencies at the end of their NMC-approved programme (Levett-Jones & Bourgeois 2009). This role is undertaken in the final placement only, but the decision will be based on the decisions of other mentors who have recorded and approved the student’s progress in their ongoing record of achievement in previous placements. These mentors are critical to the assessment of a student’s fitness to practice as a safe and effective qualified nurse, and they are responsible and accountable for providing the evidence on which the sign off mentor makes their final assessment. To be a sign off mentor, the qualified nurse must have undertaken a further course beyond that of mentorship.

As a student in your final placement, it is essential that you meet with the sign off mentor for the equivalent of 1 hour per week, in addition to the 40% of time working with your mentor normally. This is to ensure ongoing and constructive feedback is given as to your progress in the placement, and also builds on your previous ongoing record of achievement. (Please refer to the full NMC guidance on issues of confidentiality and access to your ongoing record of achievement at: http://www.nmc-uk.org/Documents/Circulars/2007circulars/NMC%20circular%2033_2007.pdf.)

Practice education facilitator

This is a relatively new role in practice education. Practice education facilitators (PEFs) are mainly employed to support mentors in their role and to act as a link between them and colleagues in universities. A study by Carlisle et al (2009:715), evaluating the role in Scotland, found that:

Some PEFs will work with mentors to develop supplementary learning opportunities for students in practice, such as study days, workshops and shared learning opportunities with other healthcare professionals.

PEFs also work with mentors and link teachers/tutors from universities, to develop and ensure that student placements are quality learning environments. They will also be involved in evaluation of your learning experience in the placement and the educational audit, whereby a specific tool is used by the placement area to evaluate the quality of the overall learning environment, to which you will also have contributed.

Link teacher

The link teacher role was introduced to ensure that there remained strong links between education and service areas when nursing education was transferred into the higher education sector in the UK. Initially, this role was key to the successful development of the learning environment in clinical practice, working with ward managers and mentors to develop placement learning opportunities and experiences for students as well as ensuring their quality. Of late, this role has become less visible but the link teacher still has a key role to play in ensuring that the areas which they link with support student learning (Arkell & Bayliss; Pratt 2007). You can check the identity of your placement link tutor through the placement learning information on your university website and also when you arrive in your allocated placement. In many areas, the link teacher works closely with the PEFs in ensuring good learning experiences for students, and some still retain hands-on clinical care and case loads. Some are also employed as lecturer–practitioners by NHS organisations, where they work half-time in the university and half-time in a clinical specialty (Buchan et al 2008).