A humanbecoming mentoring model

The purpose of this column is to set forth the humanbecoming mentoring model, which offers an alternative to the traditional perspective of mentoring. The model is built on the ontology of humanbecoming and contains assumptions, essences, and processes.     

The synergy model: the ultimate mentoring model

Clarian Health Partners is a system that includes Methodist Hospital of Indiana, Indiana University Hospital, and Riley Hospital for Children. The nurses of Clarian Health Partners are the recipients of many national awards for their leadership and innovations in critical care. Nurse leaders at Clarian have developed and implemented a unique framework for professional development based on the synergy model. In this article, the Chief Nurse Executive for the System, Dr. Karlene Kerfoot, and Marilyn Cox, the Senior Vice President for Nursing and Patient Care at Riley Hospital for Children, describe their vision of and strategies for a new approach to mentoring professional nursing staff.     

Expert clinician to clinical teacher: Developing a faculty academy and mentoring initiative

The lack of sufficient numbers of qualified nursing faculty to prepare nursing students for entry into the field of nursing is of national and international concern. Recruiting expert clinicians and preparing them as clinical teachers is one approach to addressing the faculty shortage. Adequate training for the new role is paramount to promote job satisfaction and reduce attrition. Various models for orienting and preparing expert nurse clinicians as clinical educators are reported in the literature with little consensus or research to support a single approach. This paper describes a collaborative effort to prepare experienced registered nurse clinicians for new roles as part-time clinical faculty. Using a blend of learning strategies (face-to-face, online, simulation, and group mentoring sessions), this training experience was designed to cover content while promoting discussion of issues and challenges and providing much-needed mentorship. Outcomes include 12 new clinical faculty, 25% from groups underrepresented in nursing, with nine newly employed as part-time clinical teachers.     

Developing and implementing a nursing research team in a clinical setting

The gap between research and practice that hinders the advancement of nursing practice is effected by knowledge, resources, perceptions, and expectations of nurses. The authors describe the development and implementation of a nursing research team in a large Midwest healthcare system, criterion used to identify the right personnel, nurse researcher roles that emerged after implementation, and infrastructure and administrative support that were essential to our success.     

Developing the role of a ward housekeeper within a multidisciplinary team

The implementation of a housekeeper induction competency programme demonstrates the innovative way that the clinical standards facilitator has led the development of the housekeeping service at one NHS Trust. This service has been developed to ensure that there is sufficient training, support and opportunity to share best practice for the housekeepers. A Trust-wide approach using the multidisciplinary team (including dieticians, catering and facilities managers) has contributed to the raising of standards in meeting the patients' nutritional needs, as well as improving the ward environment. NHS Estates guidance (DH, 2001b) relating to the housekeeping service and the Essence of Care benchmarks for nutrition (DH, 2001a) were used to provide this framework for continuous quality improvement.     

Developing an integrated nursing team approach

Nursing Standard recently published a literature search that explored different models of integrated nursing and more traditional models of community nursing in primary care (Baileff 2000). Models of change for implementing integrated nursing were also examined. This article aims to explore the development of an integrated nursing team in a healthcare centre in Northampton.     

Developing a chest pain team to fast track AMI patients

Rapid identification and treatment of patients found to have acute myocardial infarction (AMI) saves lives. This article identifies some of the clinical leadership challenges in the development of a chest pain team to fast track AMI patients.     

A collegial mentoring model for nurse educators

TOPIC: A mentoring model for nurse educators. PURPOSE: To describe the current literature on mentoring in nursing and education and present the Collegial Mentoring Model. SOURCES: Published literature and personal and professional experiences of nurse educators in academia. CONCLUSIONS: Commitment to the collegial mentoring relationship can be demonstrated by making time for togetherness so outcomes beneficial to both individuals can be achieved.     

Leaving the nest and joining the flock: OR residency programs and team mentoring

RESIDENCY PROGRAMS and team mentoring provide an opportunity to use creativity and personal knowledge to educate nurses new to the specialty of perioperative nursing.SURGICAL TEAM MEMBERS can join together to help inexperienced nurses by offering support, providing feedback, giving advice, answering questions, and acting as an outlet for their frustrations.NEW CONFIDENCE and rapidly acquired skills allow new nurses to become contributing members of the education cycle as they begin to teach others what they have learned. AORN J 87 (July 2008) 97-101. © AORN, Inc, 2008.     

Developing an integrated mental health nursing team

A number of initiatives have been introduced in the UK and in Wales to address the growing problem of how to treat people with mental health problems in the community. This article describes the development of an integrated nursing team that has been set up in Bro Morgannwg Trust, Wales in an effort to address some of these problems, in line with current policy.     

Developing and implementing a surgical response and physician triage team.

Trauma care during a disaster may require unusual or unique approaches. The Medical College of Pennsylvania Hospital has developed a physician field response team designed to respond to mass casualty incidents. The team has been mobilized on multiple occasions and its approach refined with each experience. The process of developing a team is presented along with "lessons learned" during the 15 years the team has been in use.     

A process-environment model for mentoring undergraduate research students

Undergraduate nursing student engagement in research remains much contested. The debate centers on whether undergraduate education is preparation for application of research findings to practice versus early exposure and engagement to discovery of new knowledge focused research as is done in graduate education. We take the position that involvement in research is beneficial but mentorship is required if the endeavor is to be meaningful. In the absence of a model to guide effective mentorship for undergraduate co-researchers we synthesized the available undergraduate mentorship literature and relevant pedagogy to develop a mentorship model for use by nurse educators who undertake research with nursing students. This was applied and refined through active engagement in, and reflection on, the execution of a research project exploring peoples' experiences of mental illness. Synthesis of the evidence and reflections led to the development of a process-environment mentorship model. This model provides an evidence- and experientially-based framework for mentoring undergraduate student co-researchers.     

Carer mentoring: A mixed methods investigation of a carer mentoring service

Background

Worldwide with ageing populations, the numbers of informal carers are likely to increase. Although being a carer is often satisfying, it can be challenging and require support. Volunteer-provided carer mentoring services where carers are supported by volunteer mentors are one such intervention. However, little is known about the impact of mentoring, carers’ experiences or the mechanisms by which these schemes may work. Previous quantitative findings have been inconsistent suggesting a different, mixed methods approach using qualitative and quantitative methods may be valuable.

Objectives

Objectives were to explore two main questions: whether mentoring had a significant positive effect on carer mentees in terms of mental health, quality of life and confidence in caring and to explore how carers experience and perceive the process and benefits of mentoring. In addition, the study aimed to suggest possible mechanisms to understand how mentoring may benefit carers.

Methods and setting

Mixed methods (quantitative questionnaires and depth interviews) investigated an established mentoring service provided by volunteer mentors. During the study period, 28 carers received mentoring. Of these, 25 carers completed structured questionnaires both before and after mentoring, to determine whether mentoring had an impact on carer wellbeing and confidence in caring. Depth interviews were also undertaken with 11 purposively sampled carers to explore how carers experience and perceive the process and benefits of mentoring.

Results

Statistically significant improvements in carer anxiety (p < 0.001), depression (p < 0.001), quality of life (p = 0.02) and confidence in caring (p < 0.05 on all dimensions except one) were found. Depth interviews revealed that carers were very positive about mentoring and highlighted many benefits. Findings suggested emotional support, information provision, problem solving facilitation and gaining new perspectives may be mechanisms by which mentoring achieves positive outcomes. Mentor personal characteristics, experiences and training are possible facilitators of the process.

Conclusions

Carer mentoring services can be a valuable form of carer support that falls somewhere between formal and informal support. Adopting mixed methods permitted greater understanding of how mentoring may benefit carers and has implications for mentor recruitment and training. The fact that mentoring can be provided by volunteer mentors makes it an attractive, potentially cost-effective means of supporting carers.     

Peer-led team learning model in a graduate-level nursing course

The peer-led team learning (PLTL) model was introduced into a graduate-level course in health economics at our school of nursing. We believed this collaborative learning program, emphasizing peer-to-peer interaction to solve complex problems, would increase student engagement and mastery of course content. The course was redesigned to accommodate a weekly 1-hour workshop conducted by peer leaders. To gain better understanding of the effect of the PLTL model, focus groups were conducted at the end of the course. Evaluation of the focus group discussions showed that peer-led workshops helped students understand the subject matter. The opportunity to discuss concepts taught during lecture with their peers helped deepen students' understanding of the material and apply this knowledge in the classroom. These findings support continuation of the PLTL model in future health economics classes and suggest that this approach may be beneficial in other graduate level-nursing courses.