MENTORSHIP AND SUPPORTING STUDENTS A STUDENTS VIEW Timothy Nagle, 2 nd Year Mental Health Nursing Student

“practice placement mentors and clinical placements have the greatest impact on student retention” (Crombie et al 2013)

My experiences ■Student information packs and placement information available ■Identified mentor at start of placement ■Welcomed and expectations disucssed ■Encouraged to question ■Mentor acknowledges limitations in own knowledge; learn from each other ■Critical, constructive feedback

My experiences ■Time to complete paperwork with student ■Understanding what paperwork needs to be completed ■Understanding of learning outcomes

Feedback from other students “on my very first placement the deputy ward manager, myself, and a nurse were in the office. The deputy ward manager asked the nurse if she wanted to have a student, to which she replied "not really". She was then assigned as my mentor.” “while I was new to a placement one mentor assigned me to another member of staff any time we weren't on shift together, so I wasn't left standing in the office unsure what to do” “My Mentor didn’t seem to understand that I just didn’t know how…” The ward was so busy, my mentor had so much to do and didn’t have time to show me…

“Each instance of mentorship is perceived differently based on both the mentor and the person being mentored” (Hoffman et al., 2008)