Role of a Mentor in Barriers to Learning

Role of a Mentor in Barriers to readingCritic onlyy analyse and converse the role of the instruct in managing a pupil who is not achieving competence in some of their usage endpoints and is not demonstrating an appropriate fellowship base.Within this assignment I give initiative to explain the role of the t all(prenominal) and assimilator highlight the antithetical barriers to acquirement, critic bothy analyse different divinatory practices to en fit reading and be able to theoretic solelyy underpin the strategies that I hope to put into practice as a retard should I encounter a problem with a savant being unable to underpin their knowledge with practice, Duffy and Hardicre (2007), suggests that instructs find that champion of the most challenging aspects of the instructing role, is when bookmans argon not achieving the expected level of per work outance. This strive is not concentrating of how to fail a schoolchild from the nursing course, but to discuss why a bookman may be having difficulty in showing the wise man that they are competent with some of their practice solutions and the scholar being unable to show the teach that they pile relate their theoretical knowledge to the practice. The mentor is pivotal in being one of the send-off to usually recognise struggling schoolchilds, and adopt to treasure, plan, and evaluate how these obstacles dismiss be removed, overcome, compensated for, or managed. This should be, documented, the form of an work plan devised by the learner and the mentor perhaps with advice from sign-off mentors on the protect, or if necessitate outside sources much(prenominal) as the dis capacity adviser, or the educational link lecturer for the posture. arguably the three main areas that can impede a bookman ability to learn are the mentor, the assimilator and the situation environment.The placement itself has may occupy some fixed constraints in terms of environment, room size, as saluta ry as some dynamic concerns such as encyclopedism opportunities, acetify load, clipping restraints, noise, temperature.The term mentor is derived from a character in an old-fashioned Greek play, The Odyssey. Back in 1978 Levinson et al expound the center field components of the mentor not only as an exemplar and counsellor but too as a teacher, sponsor, developer of skills, developer of intellect and host, (cited in Oliver and Endersby 1999). The NMC (2006) described a mentor as an individual who has achieved the knowledge, skills and competence required to meet the defined outcome in stage 2 of the developmental framework to jut out culture and assessment in practice, cited RCN toolkit (2007), therefore the mentor has the shared enhanced knowledge base and key skills which is pivotal in supporting the student in achieving competence in the required skills of a nursing, this is glittered in the amount of classroom speculation, and defend ground learning being a 50% spli t, of the students meter for the three years pre-registration. Policy documents such as Standards to Support erudition and Assessment in Practice (NMC, 2008a) show the capabilities that a sea captain necessitate to demonstrate and the criteria that a sea captain should work to achieve the status of mentor. Lloyd Jones et al (2001) pee suggested three core reasons for providing ward based learning for student nurses areThe acquisition of skills and knowledgeApplication of theory to practice passkey identify formulation and enculturisationMentorship therefore has came to mean, Haggard et al, cited Nick et al (2012), a one to one reciprocal relationship between more beget and knowledgeable faculty member and a less experienced one. check to Cahill (1996), cited in Morton-cooper and Palmer (2000), the student mentor relationship moves by dint of three different mannikins during the duration of a placement these areInitiation phase workss phaseTermination phaseOne of the numer ous things to consider during this judge will be the assessment help and how this removes to be good and consistent for the student and allow them to develop individually to achieve a level of competence in the skills required to become a professional nurse.Before a student even starts on a ward the mentor should prepare for the students arrival revaluationing the wards welcome tamp, ensuring that it is up to date and that the information held within it continues to be valid and relevant. The welcome pack should include the placement ethos, aims, learning outcomes content, and how these are to be assessed. In addition the welcome pack identifies all the processes that take place whilst the student is undertaking the placement and support mechanisms available to the student. This should allow the student to undertake some(prenominal) pre placement reading, and demonstrates to all students that the placement takes educating students seriously from the beginning. The mentor sho uld also prepare their shift kind to accommodate the student. Mayall et al (2008) undertook a study exploring the experiences of student nurses and practice mentors and discovered that 10% of student nurses felt that during some of their placements they had never been allocated a mentor, and of those who had been allocated a named mentor, 24% felt that they would capture liked to spend more age with them. Therefore ensuring that the preparation work for the placement is in place, assists the student to form a compulsory opinion for the learning environment, and relationship with the mentor, from the beginning improving the chances for lack of qualification to be addressed early.During the first interrogate that the mentor has with the student, in the first week of placement, the mentor should review the progress of the student from every former placements and experience that they have gained. The mentor also has an prospect to review the feedback given to the student from the previous mentor. The mentor can review the skills book to find competencies not achieved in previous placements, and highlight learning opportunities within the placement that the student may be lacking at this stage of their study that the student can gain during the placement. This could simply be due to the previous placement not being able to exit a learning luck due to case load, time, and type of placement, or this could have been because of the previous mentors attitude. Darling (1986), cited in Walsh (2010), described four types of toxic mentors that can negatively affect a students ability to achieve competence these areAvoidersBlockersDestroyersDumpersThe student has a responsibility set out by the guidance on professional conduct for nursing and midwifery students to take responsibility for their own learning, working safely for the people they care for, under the supervision and support of a qualified nurse NMC (2010). This duty should allow the student to openly e xtend with the mentor highlighting any deficit in their practice or their under pinning theory which unavoidablenesss to be concentrated on in order to become competent, these learning regards could be communion difficulties and educational requirements such as should a student has English as a second language, dyslexia, dyscalculia or hearing issues can be a huge barrier as it can lead to misinterpretation of core theories, or feedback from the mentor. This ideally should be discussed at the initial interrogate moreover the student may not finger confident within the relationship to reveal minor issues at this time but the mentor may have an instinctive feeling from the evidence provided by the student from their previous placement which could restrict the students capability for achieving capability in their theory or practice.The mentor should have prepared for the initial interview and take control of the continuous assessment of the students practicable learning and be able to link this to underpinning theory, by creating a placement plan for the student to review. The student and the mentor should both contribute to a learning contract to which they both sign up to what the student and the mentor expect to rea incliningically achieve by the end of the placement. Indicating how this is to happen and any learning needs of the student, and when the concrete and theoretical evidence should be formatively reviewed and assessed. formerly the foundations of the placement expectations have been agreed then the formative part of the students placement during which the mentor should be formulating an opinion of the students competency often and theoretically, based upon evidence either witnessed learning, interchanges, spoke feedback forms and so onDuring the initial phase of the placement the mentor has a duty to harbor a professional relationship with the student. It is important that when the student is in the ward with their mentor that they feel a sense of belongingness as recognised by Levett-Jones Lathlean (2007) as this can enhance a students potential for learning and influenced their emerging career decisions. The relationship can there for move from the initiation phase to the working phase, Cahill, (1996).During the working phase feedback is an important factor for both the student and the mentor. The mentor may get feedback from colleagues, spoke placements, previous placements or the student which will assist them in forming an opinion of the students competency to the required level of study. The student, themselves, needs to receive frequent, clear formative feedback, on their progress, from their mentor. It is one of the NMC requirements that the mentor provides feedback to a student as practically as it is needed to guide performance (NMC 2008). Accurate feedback will incite students to reflect on their learning and provides an chance to identify how they can repair their performance (Elcock and Sharple s 2011). This should take place away from patients or other colleagues, and ideally this should be given as soon after a positive or a negative incident. The feedback should be non judgemental and form the basis of a treatment. This should be given when both the student and the mentor is calm and should be specific on the strengths and weaknesses. Duffy (2013) gives five principles for providing constructive feedbackSet realistic goals dumbbell student expectations of feedbackGather information on student practice scrap immediatelyBe specificThe feedback sandwich where the mentor gives extolment, criticism followed by praise, that the student has brought to an incident is an prepareive feedback theory which can assist with good-looking criticism of a students failings, while still propel them, however this needs to be done effectively. Belludi (2008) illustrates how a mentor can use this technique incorrectly,giving too much weight to the praise compared to the criticismby the praise being trivial and having no responsibilityBy overusing the sandwich feedback tendency to a point where the student recognises that the mentor uses this all the time and waits for the criticism whenever the mentor gives praise.The feedback sessions should allow the student to reflect on the incident and allow the student to ask questions. The feedback should highlight any further learning required and solutions to address these short settles in knowledge. This could be approve up in writing up of the feedback as a discussion or planned subsequent leaning requirements to develop themselves, this written feedback will provide evidence for the students competence and development during the placements assessment.The mid-point interview is the formative interview. Up to this point the students relationship with the mentor has hopefully developed, as long as the mentor has not been a toxic mentor, Darling (1986), to the point where, previously, undeclared learning needs of the st udent may be revealed. The formative interview allows the student and the mentor to assess the progress so far and formatively assess the students competency and attitude. This is the point at which deficits in learning should be formatively addressed. Duffy (2003) recognised that flunk to tell students that they have not reached the required standards does not protect the interests of the habitual or professions and puts the patients who will be under their care at lay on the line. The mentor may have doubts as to the students practice or theory demonstrated but is unsure how to deal with this, the mentor may need to liaise with another mentor, or a sign-off mentor for their opinion as they may have more, or different experience in mentoring and be able to advise the students mentor as to a strategy to introduce to encourage competency. The student should bring with them the evidence of their competence gathered throughout the placement. The mentor needs to highlight to the stud ent where they are lacking competence and an exercise plan should be written up describing how the issues are to be addressed. If the mentor has not already highlighted concerns that they have with the students competency with the pedantic establishment then there may be an opportunity to invite them to attend this meeting. The students academician advisor, or the link lecturer, may assist in the formulation of the action plan and be supportive of both the student and the mentor. This input by the academic establishment is essential at an early stage should the student continue to not demonstrate competency either practically or theoretically and go on to fail the summative part of the placement. The action plan, however, should identify clearly learning outcomes detailing how these can be achieved during the placement, list the evidence required for achievement and indicate by when the evidence is required to be provided. This needs to be agreed by both the mentor and the studen t.The final part of the placement, the termination phase, concludes with the final interview this is summatively assessed and if a student has not been showing competency previously may also be attended by the link lecturer or another academic member, and should review the whole development of the student during the placement. Evaluating the evidence that the student has provided and all being well the student, with the mentor, should have responded positively to the feedback provided during the placement and address any the action plan put in place at the mid-interview. subject matter that by this point the student should be able to demonstrate competency both practically and theoretically having evidence to underpin this.The attitude of the student, during the time of the placement, to absorbing knowledge is affected by many factors. The background experience that the student has experienced such as, prior work experience or learning experience from a mentor, be that positive or negative. individual(prenominal) life matters i.e. house moving, child care. Financial stress can intrusion the students receptiveness to learning. Academic pressures based on the student can distract the student from gaining an outcome in the ward based placement. As eluded to earlier a student also needs to feel a sense of belonging within the placement team, when students are define in the knowledge that the nursing staff are supportive of their learning needs and committed to their professional development they can focus on learning rather than being preoccupied with interpersonal relationships, (Levett-Jones and Lathlean 2007).Student nurses have had their learning dashs categorised into different types by various authors, a normally used classification of learning styles is Flemmings VAK model which he later spread out on to VARK. These acronyms stand forVisual -students give better results in pictures, graphs, diagramsAuditory- students learn better with listening to lec tures, or discussing learning opportunitiesReading and writing-learn better with excogitate learning i.e. Reading journals, reportsKinesthetic/tactile learners learn best through demonstrations, practice experience.This highlights the need for being able to adapt the teaching style of the mentor to that of the student, and should be taken into account during the placement when learning, participating or reviewing learning opportunities, or by the mentor while developing a lesson plan. Honey and Munford 1986 cited in Brown and Plant 2013 suggested that a student can be classified into more than one of the following four stylesActivists -these students need to experience situations and can become disheartened should they not be allowed the opportunity to undertake skillsPragmatists-these students like to have a go but need to see how the learning opportunity fits into the final outcome.Reflectors-these students will welcome the opportunity to observe and reflect on a given learning o utcome prior to undertaking it but may require encouragement to practically undertaking a learning opportunity.Theorists-these students want to explore and understand learning opportunities probing questions to uncover reasons and concepts and do very well with structures pathways and systematic woo to nursing but can find it difficult to transcend that knowledge in light of swift changing learning opportunitiesGetting the mentoring style wrong when teaching the student, will have a negative effect on the students ability to achieve competence in a learning opportunity. If a visual pragmatists learner is given a verbal lecture about a learning objective and not shown how the opportunity fits into the wider care of the patient care, then the student may have a lower understanding of the learning opportunities, and objectives asked of them at that time and would need longer time and further investment by the mentor with a different approach being used to become competent.The role of a mentor is diverse, in their responsibilities, and requires the professional to be self aware of all the factors that can impede the student manage their expectations, and gain competence in a given area. The mentor needs to follow the assessment process to provide consistent assessments which will indicate areas of learning and allow the student to engage. As well as expanding a relationship with a student, the mentor needs to be able to consider many factors that inhibit learning, recognising that each student, is an individual with their own learning styles and needs. The mentor needs to feedback to the student regularly, motive them to improve upon their current accomplishments. It should not be forgotten by the mentor that there are various resources available, with improving competency in practice and/or theory, to support both the mentor and the student through what could be a stressful experience in the form of literature, e-learning, other mentors or link lecturers. All t he written documentation, skills book, learning contract, student handbook, placement plan, feedback forms, discussion sheets, lesson plans should provide an accurate record of the students development and sweetener as a student, throughout the placement. Not addressing a short fall in a students learning, early could make it difficult to evaluate the practical or theological practice of students summatively and not following a clear assessment process means that the student could magic spell any decisions made at the final meeting. Students often pass placements disdain there being serious concerns from mentors. Gainsbury (2010).