Posted: July 14th, 2022

Lack of Mentorship Program

Lack of Mentorship Program

Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Course
Professor’s Name
Date

Lack of Mentorship Program
A problem in the Practicum
One of the problems I observed in the practicum is the lack of a mentorship program. The nurse managers and preceptors do not have a heart for mentoring the nurse students on practicum. Nurse mentorship programs encourage mutual growth through a dynamic relationship between the mentor and the mentee (Kramer et al., 2018). I realized that nurse students in the practicum program did not receive timely and appropriate support and guidance. The practicum settings did not have a structured program to mentor the nurse students. For instance, there was no deliberate effort to match mentors and mentees. The nurse managers did not create time to reflect on their experiences in the provision of care. Lack of deliberate mentorship derails mutual growth and affects patient outcomes (Kramer et al., 2018). The health facility needs an appropriate mentorship program to provide a platform for career growth.
Appropriate Action
The first step taken in the introduction of a mentorship program was advocating for the plight of the mentees. The mentees started by talking to the senior nurse managers about the lack of mentorship. Advocacy was vital in prompting changes necessary for the mentorship program (Vandal et al., 2018). The second effort was educating the nurse managers, preceptors, and physicians on the need to mentor nurse students. Education prompts behavior change since it encourages people to make drastic changes to align with new information (Vandal et al., 2018). The advocacy is consistent with the roles that nurses are likely to play in future practice. Advocacy involves identifying what is not right and taking drastic measures to fix the situation.
Mentoring Up theory was effective in addressing the problem in the practicum settings. The theory involves four processes including seeding, opening, laddering, equalizing, and reframing (Hale & Phillips, 2019). Mentoring Up theory provides opportunities for future growth since it encourages a healthy relationship between the nurse student and experienced practitioners. Another theory that was used in the practicum setting is Rogers’ change theory which involves awareness, interest, Assessment, implementation, and adoption (Aranha, 2018). It was important to create awareness among the experienced nurses and ensure appropriate implementation and adoption of the mentorship by the management.
The nursing principle of delegation is core in ensuring appropriate changes in the healthcare environment. Nursing delegation involves assigning duties to nurse students while maintaining responsibility for the outcome (Campbell et al., 2020). Delegation involves assigning duties depending on the condition of a patient and expected outcomes. For instance, a preceptor can assign a duty to a mentee while supervising them to ensure they do it correctly. Delegation is effective in patient care since it eliminates fatigue (Campbell et al., 2020). During the pandemic, nurses are at risk of fatigue due to an overwhelming number of patients seeking care. Mentorship is critical since it will promote skill growth and development and provide opportunities for delegating duties.
The healthcare institution should provide benchmarks for the mentorship program. The indicators of success will help the physicians, mental practitioners, and nurse leaders to check their participation in the mentorship program. For instance, nurse leaders should start by matching the mentors with the mentees. It is important to train the physicians, mental practitioners, and nurse leaders to deliberately create time to be with the nurse leaders (Hale & Phillips, 2019). Mentorship is an opportunity to participate in caring for future patients. Empowering the mentees will provide appropriate skills for the mentees to provide quality care for patients.
References
Aranha, P. R. (2018). Application of Rogers’ system model in nursing care of a client with cerebrovascular accident. Manipal Journal of Nursing and Health Sciences (MJNHS), 4(1), 51-56.
Campbell, A. R., Layne, D., Scott, E., & Wei, H. (2020). Interventions to promote teamwork, delegation and communication among registered nurses and nursing Helpants: An integrative review. Journal of Nursing Management, 28(7), 1465-1472.
Hale, R. L., & Phillips, C. A. (2019). Mentoring up: A grounded theory of nurse‐to‐nurse mentoring. Journal of clinical nursing, 28(1-2), 159-172.
Kramer, D., Hillman, S. M., & Zavala, M. (2018). Developing a culture of caring and support through a peer mentorship program. Journal of Nursing Education, 57(7), 430-435.
Vandal, N., Leung, K., Sanzone, L., Filion, F., Tsimicalis, A., & Lang, A. (2018). Exploring the student peer mentor’s experience in a nursing peer mentorship program. Journal of Nursing Education, 57(7), 422-425.

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