Learning to Think Like a Clinical Teacher

Those who are hired to teach nursing students in the clinical setting often learn on the job and may lack a complete understanding of the teaching process. Knowledgeable clinical instruction is critical in facilitating student learning experiences, just as knowledgeable nursing care is crucial for providing safe patient care.Dr. Christine Tanner's clinical judgment model (CJM) illustrates the way practicing nurses develop clinical judgment. Many similarities exist with the way practicing nurses and novice clinical teachers learn to apply judgment in practice. An adaptation of Tanner's CJM (2006) was revealed as a useful framework in supporting the growth of clinical teaching judgment with novice clinical teachers.     

Does Having Been Mentored Affect Subsequent Mentoring?

BackgroundHow to be an effective mentor is typically not taught formally because good mentoring is thought to beget good mentoring, but there is little concrete data to support that connection.PurposeScholars in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Nurse Faculty Scholars (NFS) program were surveyed to find out if the mentoring they received influenced their subsequent mentoring.MethodThe qualities that form the Mentorship Effectiveness Scale were used to investigate if the experience changed scholars' views of mentoring; open-ended questions provided an opportunity for scholars to describe additional insights.ResultsThirty-nine out of 93 scholars (42%) replied. Scholars were influenced by the mentoring they received: they were now more inclined to give guidance on professional issues, provide constructive critiques, suggest resources, acknowledge mentees' contributions, and challenge mentees to extend their abilities. Scholars' experiences made them more aware of the power of mentoring, provided them with insights into how they might do the same, convinced them that mentoring shouldn't be confined to one advisor, made them realize that one style of mentoring doesn't work for everyone, and improved their likelihood of using an individual development plan when they mentored.ConclusionsEffective mentoring does seem to beget effective mentoring because the interaction with mentors seems to leave a lasting impression and the perceived obligation to “pay it forward.”     

Mentoring in Radiologic Science

Mentoring occurs every day in the workplace, as experienced employees (mentors) help guide inexperienced ones (protégés) toward a common goal. Both the mentor and protégé possess hallmark characteristics that contribute to a successful mentorship. The typology of mentoring includes formal versus informal, as well as group, one-on-one, peer, remote, and invisible mentors. The benefits of these mentorships can impact students, inexperienced employees, health care institutions, education institutions, patient care, and the mentors themselves. Finally, there are recommendations for fostering mentoring for educators and managers.     

An Analysis of a Mentoring Program for Baccalaureate Nursing Students: Does the Past Still Influence the Present?

In September 1999, the nursing alumni association of a large university on the West Coast launched a mentoring program for nursing undergraduate students: 120 students (50% of the student body) joined the program and 60 community nurses, representing a myriad of specialties, roles, and educational levels (diploma program to doctorate), agreed to volunteer their time as mentors. The program had been carefully planned using a survey done the previous year with 95% (296) of the student body asking their opinions on program components and design. A successful 9‐month pilot study was then done with 13 students matched with 13 mentors. Yet, over the next 4 years, enrollment of the students dropped to less than 1/3 the original number. Care was taken to observe the changes in enthusiasm and to address problems with the entire group: mentors and students. After 5 years, the person chairing the program needed to leave—the transition with new leadership was never successful. Part of this resulted from problems in transition but the larger issue concerned the trend that had already been identified. The aim of this paper is to discuss the problems encountered during the program from a perspective of the context within which the program was developed and the history of mentoring in the profession of nursing. The present carries the inheritance of the past. Historically, nurses and women were not expected to need mentors—“trained nurses” did not need mentoring and women were expected to have temporary jobs which they left for marriage and mothering. The paper explores the historical question: Does the history of mentoring in nursing still influence nurses today, making it challenging to establish the relationships essential to the success of mentoring?     

Perceived Benefits of a Radiology Resident Mentoring Program: Comparison of Residents With Self-Selected vs Assigned Mentors

Purpose

It has been suggested that assigned mentoring relationships are less successful than those that develop by free choice. This study evaluates radiology residents' overall experience with a mentoring program and compares the responses of those who self-selected mentors with those who were assigned mentors.

Methods

A voluntary Web-based survey was sent to 27 radiology residents in postgraduate years 3-5. Data collected included the following: year in residency, method of mentor assignment, duration of relationship, frequency and types of communication, perceived value of mentoring, overall satisfaction with the program, and the perceived impact of mentoring.

Results

Twenty-five of 27 residents (93%) responded, with 14 having self-selected mentors (56%) and 11 having assigned mentors (44%). Both groups unanimously agreed that mentoring is beneficial or critical to their training; however, those residents with self-selected mentors were significantly more satisfied with the mentoring program (4 vs 3.3; P = .04) and more likely to consider their mentor as their primary mentor compared with those with assigned mentors (11 [79%] vs 4 [36%]; P = .049). Although all residents perceived a benefit, residents with self-selected mentors rated almost all mentoring parameters more positively than those with assigned mentors, although most of these parameters did not reach statistical significance.

Conclusion

Residents highly value the importance of mentoring. However, residents who self-select their mentors are more likely to be satisfied with a mentoring program.     

论临床技能竞赛及临床带教对妇产科学技能教学的启示

全国高等院校医学生临床技能竞赛自举办以来得到广大高校的积极参与和大力支持。该研究从笔者参加临床技能竞赛的亲身经历出发,结合实际临床带教工作中遇到的问题,对技能竞赛及妇产科学技能教学中暴露出的问题进行总结,指出了规范化教学、加强系统培训、增强临床思维能力、加强医患沟通及人文关怀在妇产科操作技能教学中的重要性,为提升妇产科学临床教学质量进行了探索。