One of the major challenges associated with nursing education in this 21st century is the
practice preparation of student nurses in this complex healthcare environment to ensure
their fitness to practice. Practice training relies largely on mentoring which is central to
the professional development of student nurses. In the local context of Mauritius, the
clinical mentoring of students is service-led rather than education-driven. In the context
of the current debate, it is becoming evident that the clinical mentoring system in
Mauritius needs rethinking in order to respond to the emerging training and education
needs of nurses.
The aim of the study was to develop a contextually relevant clinical mentoring
framework for student nurses in Mauritius in order to enhance the standard of student
nurses’ training during clinical placements.
A descriptive exploratory sequential mixed method with a cross-sectional design was
used in this study. The sample for the qualitative phase consisted of eight nurses, while
there were 255 nurses and 115 students in the quantitative phase. Data were collected
through face-to-face semi-structured interviews and a self-administered questionnaire, respectively. The findings were synthesised using Dickoff et al’s (1968) survey list to
develop the clinical mentoring framework for student nurses.
The findings of the qualitative phase indicated that the current learning support system
for students in the clinical settings did not reflect what mentoring should be about.
Mentoring per se was not practiced, but rather a form of clinical accompaniment
resulting in the practice being less effective for its purpose. A variety of activities/roles
were described that nurses fulfil in everyday clinical practice that included some aspects
of a mentoring approach. Participants provided a number of pre-requisites needed for
the mentoring process.
The results of the quantitative phase revealed that both students and nurses recognised
that the mentoring system was informal. They also shared the same views regarding
barriers to mentoring, such as staff shortage, lack of resources, and inadequate support
from management and the Central School of Nursing (CSN). Along with mentoring
competencies, teaching, assessing, communication, managerial and leadership skills,
were identified as core competencies for mentors.
Effective clinical mentoring requires an understanding of the mentoring process from a
broader perspective. Mentors should be equipped with core competencies. Successful mentoring outcomes are dependent on a conducive clinical learning environment (CLE)
and the approach used to mentor. The framework on mentoring could guide and provide
a holistic approach to mentoring students in CLEs. However, emphasis must be placed
on the collaboration between the management, the clinical setting and the CSN. The
clinical framework developed from this study can be tested for its effectiveness. / Health Studies / Ph. D. (Nursing)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:uir.unisa.ac.za:10500/26899 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Foolchand, Dhunraj |
| Contributors | Maritz, Jeanette |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (xvii, 289 leaves) : illustrations (chiefly color), graphs (chiefly color), application/pdf |
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