MENTAL HEALTH NURSE AND STUDENT MENTORING RELATIONSHIP

Mental Health Nurse And Student Mentoring Relationship



Mental Health Nurse And Student Mentoring Relationship

Introduction

Mentoring has been an effective strategy in many disciplines, including all the health professions, to develop expertise and leadership within the profession. The traditional concept of mentoring involves a voluntary alliance between an experienced senior professional and a less advanced one, for the dual purposes of career development and the enhancement of the profession. It is impossible to separate mentoring from learning. Mentoring or teaching is an interactive process that promotes learning in an individual. It consists of a conscious, deliberate set of actions that help individuals gain new knowledge, change attitudes, adopt new behaviors, or perform new skills (Potter & Perry, 2004).

Mentoring can be traced back to the 1500s when, in the Greek myth of Odysseus, Ulysses appointed a wise man and valued friend named Mentor to care for his son Telemachus while he was fighting in the Trojan War Telemachus learned his most significant lessons about life and about becoming an effective ruler from Mentor. From this myth, qualities of a mentor have been described. These include coach, guide, protector, advisor, teacher, and friend (Roman, 2001).

Objectives

This paper will not focus on the role of mentors but rather on that of mentees in the field of the mental health nursing profession. A self reflection on the author's skills and qualities as a mentee will also be provided. Questioning one's knowing and understanding in practice is an integral aspect of reflection. By doing so reflection offers a focus for caring and to become more self aware of the contradictions that exist between how they would like to practice and what they actually do. Each health care professional is encouraged to reflect on the new learning.

Rationale

Mentoring has been described as a process that helps an individual adapt to new and expanded professional roles. Mentoring involves a nurturing relationship between a mentor and a mentee. Mentoring occurs when a senior person (the mentor) provides information, advice, and emotional support for a junior person (the mentee) in a relationship lasting over an extended period of time and marked by substantial emotional commitment by both parties. The mentor takes an active role in the professional development of the mentee. "Inherent in the concept of mentoring is a personal, one-to-one, nurturing relationship between the mentor and the mentee" (Roman, 2001).

Literature Review

Mentoring is a special way to transfer knowledge, and it can occur in all the settings in which scientific inquiry is being deliberately pursued. Development of mental health nursing science is the foundation for the growth of the mental health nursing discipline and profession. Knowledge development takes place in the various settings in which mental health nursing is learned and practiced. The processes and products of knowledge-work belong in academic environments for many disciplines but the practice professions both use and create their knowledge beyond traditional scholastic settings. Practice professionals continually merge their knowing with their doing (Keefe, ...