Healthcare: Evaluating NMC Mentoring Role Changes on Nursing Students

This report examines the changes implemented by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) regarding the mentoring role in nursing, effective from September 2019. The NMC replaced mentors with practice supervisors and practice assessors, leading to three distinct roles: practice supervisor, practice assessor, and academic assessor. This shift aims to provide enhanced support for new nurses, especially those in pre-registration mental health nursing, with practice supervisors offering significant guidance and support. The report discusses the implications of these changes on student assessment, emphasizing the role of practice assessors in confirming student learning and academic assessors in final evaluations. It highlights how these changes can improve future practice by providing more focused guidance and evaluation, ultimately leading to a smoother transition into clinical practice and enhanced skills in patient assessment, care planning, and medication administration. The report references key sources such as the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) and the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) to support its findings.

Running head: HEALTH CARE
Health care
Name of the student:
Name of the University:
Author’s note

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According to the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), one of the changes that has
been seen in the mentoring role is that mentors have been replaced by supervisors and practice
assessors effective from September 2019. Hence, earlier the mentor only played three roles of a
supervisor, assessor and a learning facilitator. However, now the three roles will come up
separately and the single role of mentors will be replaced. This implies that three new positions
will come up in nursing practice. The first role of practice supervisor will be taken up by
registered health and social care professional, whereas the others roles of practice assessor and
academic assessor will be assumed by registered nurse (Nursing and Midwifery Council, 2018).
This new change will mean that new nurses entering nursing practice will have to contact
practice supervisors instead of mentors to get support during learning. Practice supervisors will
prepare students for practice by providing supervision throughout their placement. They key
advantage of getting help from registered supervisor is that they can play a role in providing
extended placement opportunities to students
Post the NMC changes in the mentoring role, a new registered nurse who wish to
complete the pre-registration mental health nursing can get the opportunity to get advanced and
higher level support compared to what was available to nursing students earlier. According to the
Royal College of Nursing (RCN) statement regarding things to expect from a mentor, a new
nursing student now entering the mental health nursing field can get about 40% of the
supervision from their practice supervisors (Royal College of Nursing, 2019). The practice
supervisors, who are now going to assume the mentor’s role can now play a role in fully
engaging with students, understand their concern and directing patient care. Nursing students can
get a realistic picture of future practice through the collaboration with mentors. Moked and
Drach‐Zahavy (2016) gives the insight that apart from the expertise of supervisors, student’s

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attachment style and support seeking behaviors determines the success of students in acquiring
new learning and effectively using them in practice. Hence, after the implementation of the
change post the NMC statements, the nursing students can use their communication style to gain
valuable practice experienced from practice supervisors who have already given lot many years
to nursing practice.
After the new change in mentoring role is effectively implemented by September 2019,
the key changes that will be seen in the student assessment booklet are that the practice assessors
will now confirm student learning on placement. The final assessment will be done by academic
assessors. Hence, experienced registered nurse will get the opportunity to scrutinize nursing
student’s performance and give feedback regarding their progress in understanding key nursing
process and standards. The problem or challenges found for novice nurse is that they face
challenges during transition to practice. The gap between training and clinical practice is the
major reason behind nervousness and anxiety of newly placed nurse and reduction in quality of
care. However, this problem is resolved by the new changes process. As the heath care
professional staffs and the social health care professionals get the opportunity to mentor students
after the new rules set by NMC, there is a possibility that nursing performance and skills of
students can be upgraded (Hezaveh, Rafii & Seyedfatemi, 2014). Hence, the new change will
enhance learning experiences for future nursing students and enable aspirants to complete their
preregistration nursing in the desired manner.
Based on the review of the changes post the implementation of new mentoring role, I can
say that this change will significantly improve my future practice. This is because direct
guidance from health care professionals can enhance my capacity related to different activities
such as patient assessment, analyzing prescriptions, developing care plan and administering

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medications. By splitting the mentor into assessors and supervisors, I will get the opportunity to
get my skills evaluated by two professionals. I regard this new change to be beneficial for me, as
by splitting the role, I will get better insight into my current strength and weakness in nursing
competencies and the key areas where I need to take further training. I expect that by getting
learning support and supervision from experienced health care professionals, my transition
period will be less stressful and I will be able to effectively handle unreasonable workloads,
work relationship issues and challenges due to advanced medical technology (Schmitt &
Schiffman, 2019). Hence, successful transition to practice must be the goal while taking the
support from supervisors and assessors.

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References:
Hezaveh, M. S., Rafii, F., & Seyedfatemi, N. (2014). Novice nurses' experiences of
unpreparedness at the beginning of the work. Global journal of health science, 6(1), 215.
Moked, Z., & Drach‐Zahavy, A. (2016). Clinical supervision and nursing students' professional
competence: Support‐seeking behaviour and the attachment styles of students and
mentors. Journal of advanced nursing, 72(2), 316-327.
Nursing and Midwifery Council (2018). The NMC Replaces Mentors With Supervisors and
Assessors. Retrieved from: https://www.theflamelily.co.uk/blogs/nmc-replaces-mentors-
with-supervisors-assessors
Royal College of Nursing (2019). What to expect from your mentor? Retrieved from:
https://www.rcn.org.uk/magazines/students/2019/what-to-expect-from-your-mentor
Schmitt, C. A., & Schiffman, R. (2019). Perceived needs and coping resources of newly hired
nurses. SAGE open medicine, 7, 2050312119833216.