Issues pertaining to the role of the mentor

Table of Contents

Introduction1

NMC guidelines regarding the role of mentors2

Roles that a mentor play and the issues they might face2

Issues in providing an appropriate environment for mentoring education and health context4

Mentoring Issues in initial training and induction of teachers4

Mentoring Issues in the health professions - nursing, midwifery and medicine5

SWOT analysis of the role of mentor6

Conclusion7

References9

Issues pertaining to the role of the mentor

Introduction

The recognition of mentoring has been expanded for the last ten years as a key strategy specifically in the professional training and development in the working environment of education, business, health care and the industry. The concept of mentoring despite being an older one is difficult to define. The perceptions that people hold about the concept of mentoring varies from context to context. A reference to the term mentoring is provided in everyday practice, a number of guide books provides understanding that how the process if mentoring should be applied. Mentoring, thus can be defined as learning and helping process (Caruso, 1990), an intentional nurturing process that helps in the development of various stages of a profession and personality, (Roberts, 2000, pp.145-170). A teaching learning process also provides one conception related to definition of mentoring (Ardery, 1990). An educational dimension to the concept of mentoring is added by Bennetts (1996), stating that mentoring is a learner centred activity and the progress of this process are based on the rate that is determined by a collaboration between the mentor and mentee. In the light of these definitions and concepts, mentoring encompasses a wide range of activities ranging from helper functions to those of the assessment functions. Mentors also perform the activities of career counselling, resume preparation, and develop political knowledge. The perceptions that the individuals hold regarding the multiple process in different contexts in which the mentoring activity occurs provides account related to the inconsistency in the mentoring process.

This paper will provide a critical analysis of the issues pertaining to the role of the mentor when providing an appropriate environment for learning. As the assignment is practice based, the roles of mentors, and the working environment in the context of health and education are provided so as to make the understanding of the analysis clear. A SWOT analysis tool is also presented so as to help mentors assess themselves in order to bring positive changes in their relationships with mentee and other stakeholders.

NMC guidelines regarding the role of mentors

NMC (2006) highlights the responsibilities of the mentor in the following manner

Organizing and coordinating a practical approach to students learning and training activities

Supervision of students in a learning based environment

Providing on time and constructive feed back

Planning, Setting, monitoring and evaluating the objectives

Assessment of the behaviour and skills of the mentees

Identifying concerns

Providing evidence based environment.

Roles that a mentor plays and the issues they might face

The following are the additional roles and characteristics that are employed by a mentor in learning based practical environment (Gopee, 2008; Darling, 1984, ...