Nursing Mentorship Essay

As outlined by the Nursing and midwifery Council standarsd for assessment and practice (2008), a mentor is an obligatory prerequisite for pre-registration student nurses and at some point in a nurses career, mentorship is a required professional development (Ali & Panther, 2008). The NMC standards (2008) also relay facilitation of this development has been set out in the standards under eight domains which qualify a nurse to become a mentor when they are able to demonstrate knowledge and achievement of these outcomes, for entry onto the mentor register.

The eight domains are as follows; establishing effective working relationships, facilitation of learning, assessment and accountability, evaluation of learning, creating an environment for learning,

I will adhere to this by omitting names and places and will use fictitious information throughout the assignment. I will refer to the student as Paul.

Nurses are accountable to a series of people within the context of mentor responsibilities such as the student, the professional body, the public, the mentor themselves and associated educational providers and trusts which will be explored more in depth later on.

Mentors are accountable to the student to ensure effective facilitation of learning to develop their skills (NMC, 2008). RCN (2006) second this statement acknowledging nurses are accountable for students entering the register by assessing their knowledge, skills and competence.

As a mentor you are accountable for your actions and professionalism and how this can influence others which the NMC code of conduct (2015 standard 20.8) reiterates stating the nurse should “act as a role model of professional behaviour for students and newly qualified nurses and midwives to aspire to.” However it is also your clinical judgement that allows a student to continue through their nursing programme therefore expressing the overall accountability of the mentor in the learner’s placement , NMC standards (2008 section 3.2.3) “Mentors will use their professional judgment and local/national policy to determine where activities may be safely delegated to students and the level of supervision