Essentials of Mentorship in Nursing: Strategies for Effective Teaching and Learning

Running head: ESSENTIALS OF MENTORSHIP IN NURSING
ESSENTIALS OF MENTORSHIP IN NURSING
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1ESSENTIALS OF MENTORSHIP IN NURSING
The essay is focused towards analysing and evaluating the essential aspects of
mentorship in nursing and the value of effective mentorship towards optimizing the
efficiency of new recruits in the nursing profession. The case being considered for the
study is that of a second year student who is visiting the work area of the mentor for a
placement of 5 weeks. The student have been underperforming in the previous
placement opportunities that he got. Thus, it is now up to the mentor to devise
strategies of effective mentoring, through which the performance of the student can be
greatly improved. The strategies will depend on aspects that can enhance the capability
of the student to learn. The right kind of teaching practices will be required and
subsequently effective assessment techniques have to be used. Mentoring is an
essential requirement for budding nurses as well as other healthcare or clinical
professional. It is an extremely important phase concerning the nursing profession. The
importance of mentorship revolves around the fact that ground level expertise is
required largely in the nursing profession in order to serve the patients. The gravity of
the roles of nurses require that effective mentoring processes are implemented in order
to help new nurses understand, grow and develop themselves according to their roles. It
is also an important prospect for senior nurses to reach newer levels in their careers.
Senior nurses can attain greater levels of expertise concerning their job positions by
mentoring new clinical nursing recruits. Many essential factors need to be effectively
tackled in clinics and nursing students may find the challenges overwhelming without
proper assistance. Clinical practice requires establishing effective connections with all
types of patients in order to cater to their treatment and other treatment-oriented

2ESSENTIALS OF MENTORSHIP IN NURSING
requirements. Mentorship is a crucial aspect that is required to guide nursing aspirants
towards achieving greater future productivity concerning their duties.
A case of an underachieving student is essentially considered in the study for the
effective analysis of the aspects and factors that govern mentorship. It is important to
note that underachieving students can lose their future career prospects in the clinical
nursing sector if they are unable to improve their identified shortcomings.
Mentorship of nurses can be effectively enhanced using learning oriented
theories to create better learning outcomes among the students. Observation,
interaction and emulation are some of the most crucial aspects of a proper learning
mechanism (Fleming & Mills, 1992). The theory of Andragogy concerns analysing the
learning procedures among students through scientific means and applies generally to
adult learners. The theory can be analysed through some essential concepts that are
connected with it. The primary aspect is the concept of the self among learners. As
people grow, they tend to become more independent concerning their personality and
gain a different level of self-awareness. Another crucial aspect that affects learning
behaviour in andragogy is the willingness to learn (Dreyfus & Dreyfus, 1980). Adult
learners like the nursing student are more inclined towards gaining knowledge that can
enhance his/her skill development aspects. The effectiveness of the learning processes
also depend on how much ready a person is to gain knowledge. The fourth crucial
aspect in this theory is learning orientation. An adult learners knowledge-gaining
perspectives generally change from subject centred approach to problem based
approach. A fifth point was later added concerning the factor of motivation. It is
completely based on the internal self of the person and cannot be externally influenced

3ESSENTIALS OF MENTORSHIP IN NURSING
(Fleming & Mills, 1992). The factors of the andragogy can crucially affect the knowledge
that will be imparted to the student by the mentor. Andragogy is an important approach
towards learning as it covers all the essential aspects that concern the learning phase of
students. All the factors that effectively lead to the perception of knowledge within an
individual and the essential roles of the mentor or teacher is covered through this
learning approach. This approach can critically determine the outcomes of learning
processes at the very beginning of the learning endeavour (Lee, 2017).
The theory of pedagogy is based on the teacher rather than the learner. Thus, this
theory concerns the abilities of the mentor more than that of the underperforming intern.
The theory is mostly based on planning and implementation of teaching techniques
(Whitty, 2017). It mostly concerns the interactive participation of the teachers and
students towards forming a strong bond between them. Many times pedagogy becomes
a broad concept that essentially considers both the ability of the teachers and the
perception of the students towards establishing an evaluative framework for the learning
process (Knowles, 1980). The effectiveness of pedagogy depends on three significant
perspectives of learning orientation. The first is the teacher-centric learning process in
which the teacher takes sessions with the whole class (Allen, 1968). The traditional
teaching techniques like calling students to answer and inviting explanations from
students are part of this process. The second is the learner centric approach towards
learning. In this the previous learning experience of students, their effective cognition
abilities and their interactions with the teachers are considered much important towards
the effectiveness of the learning process. The third perspective is the learning-centric
pedagogy this is a perspective and an essential approach of learning that considers