Ashford and St Peters Hospitals NHS Trust

These pages contain all sorts of information to help you support students. 

 

 

Mentors give nursing students a high quality experience

 

ASPH and Surrey PCT have recently received evaluations of practice experience from Nursing Students who completed their final placement between May and August 2007. This placement is known as the Supervised Practice Module and is a 12 week placement; giving students the chance to consolidate their learning prior to qualifying. 

 

These students began their training at the University of Surrey in September 2004 and in September.   Students complete an evaluation after every placement throughout their 3 years. They are asked to score how satisfied they were with their experience over 21 questions and are able to write additional comments.  

Many of the students have now taken up staff nurse posts in ASPH or Surrey PCT.

 

Mentors are qualified nurses who have undertaken an additional Mentoring course that enable them to mentor and assess student nurses in practice.

 

The table below shows comments from some of the 22 students that recently completed their training in ASPH and the North West Locality of Surrey PCT. 

 

 

Ashford & St Peters Hospital NHS Trust

Placement		Student Comments
Dickens		All staff very supportive and helpful. V. Good team plenty of opportunities to work with mentor and co/mentor
Coronary Care		This was a fantastic placement, very supportive, very sorry to leave. Skilled and friendly staff, this as increased my knowledge of interest in cardiology. Thank you.
Cedar		After I’d settled in I was valued me as a team member
Surgical High Dependency Unit		All staff were welcoming and friendly, lots of support and opportunities to learn. I felt like a part of the team
Aspen		This placement provided a safe and encouraging learning environment, offering a variety of opportunities and a valuable experience in my training.
Kingfisher		I felt part of the team and was given responsibilities, increasing skills and confidence.
Kingfisher		Senior Staff Nurse was very supportive and extremely nice. She taught me a lot and had confidence in me; generally the entire team was very supportive.
Surrey PCT (NWS Locality)
Placement		Students Comments
Studholme Medical Centre DNs		My placement was very good
St Johns Health Centre DNs		Encouraged short visits, matched my learning needs with good mentoring, attended study days, such advice on interview techniques, if there was a clinical procedure I needed to develop I was given suitable patients to develop this.
Victoria Ward Woking Community Hospital		My mentor was very helpful to me on this placement, as were all the other staff.
West Byfleet Health Centre DNs		Good Mentorship, well supported, worked as part of the team and felt valued; I got enough opportunity to put my learning into practice.
Hersham Ward Walton Community Hospital		An excellent placement. All staff very supportive, excellent mentor really enjoyed it very good student's welcome pack
Chobham DNs		Very supportive, lots of learning opportunities
4 Fordbridge Road DNs		Thoroughly enjoyed my supervised placement. Very supportive.
Chertsey DNs		The placement made me feel very welcome and I learned a lot.
Englefield Green DNS		This placement was ideal for supervised practice. It helped me to increase my confidence as the team was very supportive and gave me good opportunities to meet my learning needs.
For further information please contact Sue Uzzell, Placement Learning Facilitator for both ASPH and Surrey PCT NWS Locality on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it   October 2007
NMC Standards
In August 2006, the NMC published the Standards to support learning and assessment in practice. The main purpose of the NMS is to protect the public, and this aim is reflected in the standard.   ·          Click here to open the document on the NMC website   The full document contains three standards, one for Mentors, Practice Teachers and Teachers.                    A summary of the requirements within the Mentor Standard are listed below: These will affect staff that support pre registration nursing and midwifery students in practice.      The placement provider (the Trust) must hold and maintain a Mentor Database   The Placement Learning Facilitator is responsible for this. The database will be maintained via opportunities such as Education Audit, and Mentor sessions     Mentors must have update annually and attend a triennial review   The purpose of the update session to ensure that mentors   o         have current knowledge of NMC approved programmes   o         are able to discuss the implications of changes to NMC requirements   o         have an opportunity to discuss issues related to mentoring, assessment of competence and fitness for safe and effective practice.   It is likely that triennial review will occur as part of the performance review process. Mentors must be able to demonstrate that they have mentored at least 2 students within the last 3 years and have mapped their ongoing development against the NMC mentor standards,     Sign Off Mentors   The Standards introduce a new concept of ‘sign off mentors’.    It is slightly different for nursing and midwifery.   From Sep 07 (cohort) all final module students must be mentored by a Sign Off mentor. Criteria must be met in order to be a Sign Off Mentor, mentors need to have been supervised mentoring a final module student on 3 occasions by an existing Sign off mentor. As final module placement students only come out every 6 months it will take time to build this resource. Sign Off mentors should be given 1 hour per student per week protected time when supervising a final module student.    Placement providers are able to identify their ‘first round’ of sign off mentors. After this, the criteria described above must be met. Sign off Mentors must be identified on the Mentor Database     Midwifery    The NMC states that all mentors in midwifery need to be sign off mentors and this is needed for placements from September 2007. More information on this will be coming soon here.   Sign off Mentors will also be needed (from Sep 07) for both Overseas Nursing Programme students and Return to Practice students     Support for Mentors   The NMC is also clear that mentors should have a network of support and advice available to them. This takes the form of link tutors, and also a Trust based support network.
Training
·          Mentor Development – to remain a ‘live’ mentor, you must attend an organised update on an annual basis.  As a result of the NMC Standards, these updates (from 2008) will be called Mentor Development sessions and will focus on developing your skills as a mentor.  Click here to download the 2008 dates and flyer.   ·          Associate Mentor Training - Associate Mentors are qualified staff who haven’t undertaken the mentorship course.  This new 4 hour course is designed to help promote a standard amongst Associate Mentors and is ideal for newly qualified staff as part of their preceptorship programme.  Click here to download the 2008 dates and flyer.   ·          Mentorship – this is the approved course that qualifies you as a mentor. It is run by the University of Surrey in Guildford. Click here for a course flyer. To apply, you need to discuss with your line manager and then complete the Nursing & Midwifery AND the University application forms (available on the Trust Net)   ·          Nurse Teaching Sessions – these informal sessions are open to all staff, they can be tailored to a specific need such as newly qualified nurses, new mentors, experienced mentors, and how HCAs can support students etc. Sessions are advertised via the wards and are usually booked by Clinical Practitioner Educators.
Support
o         Clinical Practitioner Educators – CPEs are based at both Ashford & St Peters Hospitals; they have a responsibility to promote quality and high standards of care through education, usually within a directorate. CPEs can offer support to mentors   o         Link Tutors – each placement has a named Link Tutor from the University of Surrey at Guildford. Their role is to provide support to the mentors within that placement so that students can be appropriately supported, and assessed.    o         Mentor Link Forum - The Mentor Link Forum was established in January 2008 and meets every 2 months.  Each placement area has a nominated ‘link’ person who attends the meetings and acts as a resource for colleagues in practice.    o         Student performance - if you have any issues regarding the progress of your student then refer to the pathway and make sure you take the correct actions and receive the right support.    o         Click here to download the process for supporting a student failing to meet learning outcomes   o         Click here to download the process for managing concerns regarding a student’s professional behaviour   o         Mentor Handbook – this is an easy to read document that takes you through the stages of mentoring, from the student’s first day with you to the final assessment. Click here to download it.   o         Student do’s and don’ts – click here for important information on what students can and can’t do in clinical practice. All placement areas received a paper copy of this guidance and it should be readily available.   o         Off duty guidelines – download the guidelines by clicking here   o         Absence recording – this monitoring mechanism is important, and forms must be completed and returned to the University. The paperwork is sent to placement areas by the University
Curriculum
Click on the relevant course to find out about the modules that students have to follow, the learning outcomes, and what the assessment method is. This link to the Surrey University website will open in a new window. Diploma in Adult Nursing Degree in Adult Nursing Diploma in Child Nursing Degree in Child Nursing Diploma in Midwifery Studies Degree in Midwifery Studies Diploma in Mental Health Nursing Diploma in Operating Department Practice
Resources
Placements In Focus Facilitating Learning Handbook RCN Toolkit for Mentors QAA Code of Practice NMC Guide for Students of Nursing and Midwifery      Download the Mentor resource pack for supporting a student with dyslexia here   Useful journal articles   Price: Practice based assessment - Strategies for Mentors (May 2007) Quality Assurance Agency: Major Review Factsheet (March 2007) Price: Reflection and Critical Thinking (August 2004) Dix and Hughes: Strategies to help students learn effectively (April 2007)