Keeping Up to Date

There are several ways to keep up to date about mentoring issues. These include; attending mentor updates, mentor support groups, sessions with the University Liaison Lecturers and self updating by completing the mentor workbook or the mentor update tool.

Local trusts may currently be offering mentor update sessions . For information on Facilitating Learning in Practice sessions held by Leeds Community Healthcare please click here. Otherwise please contact your Placement Learning Facilitator.

Relevant publications and articles are also a valuable resource for those participating in the mentor role. These may be accessible on your professional organisation website e.g. The Nursing and Midwifery Council at www.nmc-uk.org . A study commissioned by the NMC on 'Why mentors sometimes give students the benefit of the doubt' should also be of interest. The results of this study can be found in the report Failing students, Duffy. K (2004)

Other organisations such as the Royal College of Nursing at www.rcn.org.uk also provide useful information for mentors. You do not always need to be a member to access it. However, if you are a member, two excellent resources are 'Helping students get the best from their placements', and 'Guidance for mentors of student nurses and midwives,' which are RCN toolkits designed for Nursing and Midwifery students and aim to enable students to get the best from their practice placements. These can be found on their website.

Professional journals also contain interesting and relevant articles on mentoring, for example, the Nursing Standard at www.nursing-standard.co.uk often has articles focusing on key mentoring issues such as:

Hand, H (2006) 'Promoting effective teaching and learning in the clinical setting'. Nursing Standard, June 20/ vol 20/no39, 55-63

Price, B (2004) 'Mentoring:The key to Clinical Learning', Nursing Standard, September 8/vol8/no52/2004

Price, B (2004) 'Evaluating your Learning Environment', Nursing Standard, October 13/vol19/no5/2004

'Mentoring:The key to Clinical Learning', September 8/vol8/no52/2004 Nursing Standard, Price (2004)

Wilkes, Z (2006) 'The student mentor relationship: a review of the literature', Nursing Standard, May 24/vol 20/no37, 42-47