Nurse mentors are crucial in ensuring that only students who are competent and fit for practice enter onto the professional nursing register in the UK. However, the literature continues to reflect a perception that mentors are reluctant to fail student nurses in practice. There is minimal research focussing on mentors who do fail, and even fewer studies focussing on the mentor experience of failure in the final placement. An interpretive, hermeneutic phenomenological study, guided by the philosophy of Gadamer (2004), was carried out to explore, interpret and develop an understanding of mentors‘ experiences of failing pre-registration nursing students in their final placement. Nineteen mentors from seven different organisations were interviewed and guided through a process of reflection on their experience; these were then transcribed to form a text. A hermeneutic textual interpretation revealed four horizons (Gadamer, 2004) that united the mentor experience. Mentor expectations of being fit for practice‘ included the meanings they attached to their role, which was in a metaphorical sense to polish the rough diamond‘, and the meaning of being the whole package‘ in order to be deemed fit for practice. Their reflections revealed the consequences of failure‘ which includes the meanings of a failure to act and challenge‘ students, and the personal price‘ they had to pay in making the decision to fail. The act of failing in the final placement‘ explicates the meanings of an unavoidable subjective dimension‘ to the decision, and the perceived barriers and enablers‘ of making the decision to fail which include workload and time‘, and perceived attitudes towards the mentorship role‘. The horizon of self realisation‘ illuminates the meanings of a sense of professional responsibility and accountability‘, and personal growth and enlightenment‘. Through a hermeneutic process of interpretation, this thesis uncovers an understanding of being‘ a mentor who fails a pre-registration nursing student in their final placement. This understanding reveals new possibilities for mentors, educators, policy makers and researchers.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:570876 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Black, Sharon |
| Publisher | London South Bank University |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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