Mentoring An Underachieving Nursing Student

Importance of Mentorship in Nursing

Discuss about the Learning Teaching And Assessment In Singapore.

A mentor is the role model, guide and expert who facilitates learning, assess and supervise the students in order to help them in practice setting. In nursing a mentor is defined as a more experienced nurse who acts as a guide and expert for the less- experienced or new nurses (Butterworth & Faugier, 2013). Mentorship is a process of collaborative learning in which individual involves with mutual goals and contributes their accountability to achieve positive outcomes and success (Eller, Lev & Feurer, 2014). Mentorship is the safeguard of nursing standard that has many advantages for example; mentorship could help to foster the leadership skill that is important for a nurse to develop, design and deliver service in an effective manner. Mentorship is helpful in the health care field to improve the self-confidence, moral and ethical understanding, skills and knowledge of the nursing student. It helps the students in order to become professional. Mentorship helps to build effective relationship with the patients and the colleagues in the health care organization (Lindén, Ohlin & Brodin, 2013).

 The assignment will explore the experience of a mentor working in the orthopaedic ward with 15years of experience. A second year student has come to his workplace for 5 week placement. It has been informed that the student had been underachieving in the previous placement. The paper will share the plan of mentoring an underachieving student in the assignment. In this regards the paper will provide brief discussion regarding the underachieving student, role of mentor, different learning styles, impact of clinical environment on learning, assessment to promote learning and importance of feedback in mentorship. It will also provide reflection regarding its impact on future practice.

In order to proceed with mentorship a planned orientation program has been prepared that includes interview of the mentee in order to identify the learning needs and issues that have risen in the previous learning session. It has helped to introduce effective learning process that could help the student to achieve expected outcomes. A session to discuss the roles and responsibilities of the mentee and importance of clinical environment has been arranged. It has helped the mentee to understand the individual role and responsibility and participate in the learning session in an effective manner. The mentee has been introduced to the other nurses, doctors and staffs of the hospital. It has helped him to feel welcomed, reduce nervousness and settle down in the new environment.

Experience of a Mentor in Orthopaedic Ward

 Motivation is very important for the students to engage in the learning process. Motivation can be intrinsic or extrinsic. For example, intrinsic motivation is enjoying the learning process for own sake and positive outcomes. On the other hand extrinsic motivational factors include achieving external reward (Nuttin, 2014). Information about the motivational factors such as use the knowledge in the nursing practice, becoming a successful nurse, provide service to the people with need and secure future has been provided to the mentee. Adequate information regarding the Singapore nursing board has been provided to the student. For example the required nursing skills such as compassion for serving people with need, effective communication skill, knowledge of ethics, power of critical thinking, confidence, adaptability and commitment to develop service. The learning objectives have been shared with the mentee. In this regards an action plan has been prepared based on the SMART goal framework in order to achieve the desired outcomes within the time frame that is 5 weeks. It was expected that the mentee will participate in the learning process effectively and follow the instructions of the mentor in order to improve skills. He would not avoid his responsibilities and maintain all the rules of the institution. It was expected that the learning process will help the student to overcome his issues and become a successful nurse in future. In this regards essential learning resources such as text books, other reading materials, videos, charts, software and recordings has been arranged to provide the student adequate support so that he could involve in the learning process and achieve desired outcomes.  

Underachieving student is defined as the students that face constant failure in achieving realistic anticipants according to their capabilities. Such students are considered as substandard by their peer. They lack self-confidence, ability and persistence to comply with the goals and fail to achieve expected outcomes. Some underachieving students are unable to control their anxiety and some feel shy in asking questions. However, it has been found that underachieving students score high in the aptitude and achievement test but they fail to perform well in the assignments due to lack of concentration. It has been found that many of them have the ability to understand learning concepts orally but they fail to implement such knowledge. Thus, at the end they become disappointed due to lack of motivation and give up completely (Freda, González-Monteagudo & Esposito, 2016).

Mentoring an Underachieving Nursing Student

However, there are some consequences of not failing the students for example in some cases mentors fail to link the performance of the student with the learning outcomes and fail to identify the underachieving students. Sometimes mentors consider the failure of a student with their personal failure thus avoid failing a student to avoid tension between their professional role, career and nurture. In some cases students could manipulate the system or the mentor in order to avoid failure or the personal issues could influence a mentor to avoid the fail case. In case of such incidents the mentor fails to recognize or avoid an underachieving student (Lancia et al., 2013). Thus, more focus is needed to understand the behaviour of underachieving students to identify their problem and address them in order to achieve expected outcomes.  

The activities of a mentor include teaching, supervision, explaining, support and motivate the student. It is important for the mentor to belief on the student’s ability and help the student in order to achieve expected outcomes. It is the responsibility of the mentor to establish mutual relationship with the student in order to facilitate the learning process. It helps the satisfaction and successful career for both the student and the mentor. In this regards the mentor needs to use effective communication and commitment (Butterworth & Faugier, 2013). Another vital role of the mentor in clinical practice is to assess effective nursing practice of the student for registering.  It is the responsibility of the mentor to identify the learning issues, introduce effective interventions and provide adequate resources. The mentor needs to portray a good role model. It is important to discuss the objectives of learning so that the mentee could understand the rational of the assessment (Chen & Lou, 2014).

There are different kinds of learner and according to their ability different learning styles are also present. The VAK scale is the most applicable process to identify the learning styles of the student. According to the VAK scale the learners are classified into three categories such as visual learner, auditory learner, and kinaesthetic learner. The visual learners usually learn from visual displays. In such learning process image, chart, videos, presentation, signs and diagram play an important role. Auditory learners mostly show their interest in verbal instructions like lecture and they utilize different discussion in order to learn new things and improve their skills. Such learning style helps to recollect sound and develop knowledge in words and language. Kinaesthetic learning process includes learning through different actions. The kinesthetic learners learn through hands-on practice and they like to move around while learning. Each learning style is applicable for student according to their need, interest and capability (Urval et al., 2014).

Different Learning Styles and their Importance in Mentorship

It is important to understand the learning style of the student in order to utilize appropriate learning theory to address the issues of the student. In this case using the VAK scale it has been found that the underachieving student is kinaesthetic learner thus he has failed to learn from auditory and visual learning process that has been used in the previous session. Thus, it is important to use theory and interventions that are related to kinaesthetic learning styles to improve and facilitate the learning of the student.  

Effective learning theories help a mentor to identify individual requirements and help to introduce effective interventions. Some important learning theories are discussed below.

Pedagogy learning theory: The theory is related to the traditional learning process. It provides the concept of teacher centred, rote and content focus learning. In this process the mentor decides learning content, strategies, timing and assessment that are required. Thus, the pedagogy theory advocates for the overall responsibilities of the mentor (Schmeck, 2013).

Andragogy learning theory: Andragogy learning theory is related to the self-directed learning process. The theory is adopted from the Knowle’s assumption of adults learning. The theory advocates for the importance of acknowledging the essentiality of learning. According to the theory the students are responsible for their own choice in learning. Thus, it can be said that the andragogy theory of learning is learner directed and experience based theory (Cox, 2015).

Cognitive learning theory: The cognitive learning theory is related to the cumulative learning. According to the theory it is important to consider psychological demonstration and cognitive development in order to implement cognitive learning theory. It has mentioned that information managing, forecast and foreknowledge is important in order to include cognitive understanding for learning (Zepeda, Parylo & Bengtson, 2014).

Behavioural learning theory: The behavioural learning theory states that reinforcement of a response is involved in the learning via reward and punishment. It is considered as the feedback system. The theory is related to activity aid learning in clinical practice. According to the behavioural theory, learning could be facilitated by observing people. In this case the student needs to be attentive and notice the behaviour and responsibilities of the role model with full concentration (Ugoo-Okonkwo, 2013).

Application of proper theory helps to improve the learning process. In this case application of pedagogy theory is important to introduce effective plan to help the student to improve his skills. Andragogy theory would help the student to involve in the learning process in an effective manner. Behavioural theory would help the student to observe the activity and instruction of the mentor and learn from them effectively. The cognitive behaviour theory would facilitate the cognitive development of the student. Implementation of such theory would help to ensure the learning of the underachieving student in an effective manner (ref).

Impact of Clinical Environment on Learning

Beside the contribution of mentor and mentee, skills, knowledge and resources, effective clinical environment plays an important role in the learning process. Clinical environment contains all the surroundings of the student such as clinical background, presence of adequate instruments, Staffs of the institution, patients and mentor as well. Effective learning environment induce positive learning outcomes. Positive learning atmosphere includes good association, interpersonal relation within the institution and coordination of the staffs. Such surroundings help to encourage the student to participate effectively in the clinical practice (Killam & Heerschap, 2013). The learning environment needs to be safe and comfortable. It would help the student to learn in a non-threatening manner and could interpret the theories in the practice. Adequate resources such as book, training room, manikins, SOP/HAP and others need to be present in the institution so that students could utilize them in their learning session. Positive clinical environment engages the students to fulfil their responsibilities and promote learning in an effective manner. It provides motivation and helps the students to increase their competencies and enhance their learning process (Robinson & Dearmon, 2013). Hence, it can be said that effective learning environment help the students to develop their skills in an effective manner.

SWOT analysis of own characteristics as a potential mentor:

Specific: To facilitate the learning of the underachieving student through implementation of effective learning theory and proper action plan.  

Measureable: The improvement of the student could be track through tests, meetings and effective assessments.

Achievable: It is difficult to help the student as he is unable to learn from common visual and auditory session, however, with proper activity such as different actions like moving or standing during learning session, continuous practice, introduction of exercise during study, using highlighter, training to reduce anxiety and using motor memory to introduce creativity in the learning session, the student could be benefited (Vaishnav & Chirayu, 2013).  

Relevant: Using exercise or movement could help the kinaesthetic learners to learn in a better manner as body is engaged in the learning session. Using highlighter or colour code would help to observe important notes. Using motor memory such as moving hand or twisting a rubber band during study would help the student to recall the things during test. Such kinaesthetic strategies could help to improve the learning of the student and achieve positive outcomes (Vaishnav & Chirayu, 2013).

Value of accurate record keeping:

Assessment to Promote Learning

Accurate records or documentation is important in order to track the progress of the mentee. The problems of the mentee need to be documented in order to identify which one has been addressed with effective strategies. Daily record needs to be kept in order to understand whether the learning strategies are applicable for the student or not. It would help to modify the learning process in order to facilitate the mentee. Such record keeping process is helpful for both the mentor and the mentee (Griffith, 2015).

Emotional intelligence and self-awareness play an important role in the learning assessment. It helps the mentor to understand the personality of the mentee and motivate to engage in the learning in an effective manner. Self-awareness and emotional intelligence help to deal effectively with conflicts and create solution to resolve them. Overuse and underuse of emotional intelligence skill of the mentor impact the learning process (Collins & Cooper, 2014). Thus, it is important to utilize the self-awareness and emotional intelligence skill properly in order to facilitate the learning assessment.

Induction helps the mentee to understand the policies and practices of the institution. The process helps the mentor to describe the whole process of learning and make the student understand about the importance of the session and encourage him to involve in the process. Through the induction the student becomes familiar with the institution. Team orientation helps to meet with new people and helps to communicate effectively (Maguire, 2013). Thus, it can be said that induction and orientation play an important role in the learning assessment.

It is important to provide adequate resources and utilize them to maximize the learning opportunities. Adequate books, learning materials, videos, audio, recordings, charts, pictures, training room, instruments and other required things need to be provided to the mentee. Such resources need to be used properly to create a real-like learning environment and induce the involvement of the mentee (Riazi & Candlin, 2014).

Developing relationship with wider team:

Develop effective relationship with the wider team is important in order to make oneself comfortable in the learning environment. Coordination and communication play an important role in establishing effective relationship with the wider team. Support of the team along with the mentor would help the mentee to enhance his learning and achieve successful outcomes (Wong,  Cummings & Ducharme, 2013).

Feedback is one of the most important parts of learning programs. It helps to understand the effort and contribution of the mentor and mentee in the learning process. Feedback should be two way for example, feedback provided by the mentor regarding the mentee and vice versa. Feedback from the inter-professional team is also important. Feedback need to be taken in each meeting to identify any issue or track the progress of the process. Feedback could be verbal and written as well and proper documentation of feedback is also important (ref).

Importance of Feedback in Mentorship

Initial assessment:

It would be conducted within the 48 hours of visiting the mentee. In the initial assessment learning objectives, plans and outcomes would be discussed with the mentee. Time and date would be set for the formative and summative assessment. Mentor and the mentee would complete all the documentation process (Carless, 2015).  

Formative assessment:

It is the assessment of mid-way progress. In this process practice and progress of the student would be reviewed. Improvement or requirements would be discussed with the mentee. The learning plan would be reviewed in order to identify whether it is applicable for the mentee or not, if not applicable then the plan would be modified to facilitate the learning of the mentee. Further areas of improvement would be identified and the mentor would complete the documentation of current progress (Keeley, 2015).

Summative assessment:

Summative assessment provides the final progress report. In this assessment the total progress would be documented and HEI would assess the complete workbook in order to allow the student for further progression (Black, 2013).

Conclusion:

It can be said that underachieving students fail to achieve the goals set by the peers, thus considered as the substandard. It is the responsibility of a potential mentor to help such students with proper learning strategies in order to facilitate their learning and achieve successful outcomes. In this regards a mentor need to identify the issues of the student in the previous session and use appropriate learning theory and practice to improve the performance of the student. As a mentor I have learned the importance of identifying learning style of the mentee to deal with the underachieving student. It has also helped me to identify the impact of learning theories and clinical environment on the learning process. I have learned that the mentees need to use their self-awareness and emotional intelligence properly to deal with any conflict and introduce proper solution. The case has helped me to recognize that induction and orientation is important to make the mentee comfortable with the learning environment. I have learned about the feedback and report keeping process. It is expected that the lesson gained from the experience would help me to improve my skills thus, help me to establish myself as a successful mentor in future.

References:

Black, P. (2013). Formative and summative aspects of assessment: Theoretical and research foundations in the context of pedagogy. Sage handbook of research on classroom assessment, 167-178. ISBN 978-1-4129-9587-0. Retrieved from https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=YcU5DQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA167&dq=Summative+assessment:&ots=S4K-d3x8cy&sig=8pDSTtgR1TUJ0rKOQIVWywTwZgE#v=onepage&q=Summative%20assessment%3A&f=false

Conclusion

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