NURSING ESSAY.

Nursing Essay

Nursing Essay

Introduction

I have noticed nowadays that reflective practice does play a major role in the nursing field. It is not just a personal opinion, reflective practice is becoming an essential element of nurse education as professional nursing bodies world wide are being impressed by literature on learning by reflection. It is nearly the same conclusion that is brought by Boud, Keogh and Walker(1987,pg 11) and this is proof as well that reflective practice isn't a new concept. It is so, as they traced similar ideas back to Aristoles writings on practical judgement and moral actions. Reflective practice is a system that clarifies everything. It is a simple task of noting past experience and improving on past errors.

Mentor And Its Function In The Context Of Health Care

Although the concept of mentoring is not new, it is difficult to define. The traditional concept of mentoring involves a voluntary alliance between an experienced professional and a less well advanced one. In recent years, mentoring systems have attracted considerable debate in both occupational and professional groups. Despite the comprehensive literature concerned with defining and determining the nature of the mentoring role. Including various frameworks, there has been little or no universal agreement with regards the role and function. Further complicating the mentoring process in nursing and midwifery have been the emerging roles of preceptorship and clinical supervision. The terminology used to define the facilitative roles undertaken by professional practitioners is variable and adds to the confusion surrounding the nature of the mentorship role(A guide for teachers, 2005, pp.56-70).

Mentoring has been described and discussed in healthcare literature for the past 20-25 years, with the majority of research having taken place within the nursing discipline. Previous studies examining the impact of mentoring on organisations has shown benefits in relation to employee motivation, job performance and retention rates. During the past ten years, mentoring has been increasingly recognised within the United Kingdom and internationally as a key strategy in professional health care training and within the various health care professions has been adopted at different times and conceptualised in different ways.

Mentoring is a career developmental relationship that is championed by business and service professions such as teachers, social workers, and psychologists to promote the development of knowledge, professional competence, and success, as well as to engender personal investment in a profession and an organization. Many mentoring programs and initiatives in nursing have attempted to use mentoring to reap individual and organizational benefits.

Within midwifery the concept of supervision of practice has been apparent for trained midwives for over 100 years, with a role in guiding, counselling and advising midwives. The concept of mentoring in pre-registration nursing and midwifery training seemed to accompany the move of healthcare into higher education and a more adult-centred approach to learning. Within the nursing profession, training changed dramatically in the United Kingdom with the introduction of Project 2000 and with this initiative mentorship in practice was introduced as an integral part of the training programme(Howe, Davies, McMahon, Towler & ...