The Role of the Clinical Mentor in Supporting Undergraduate Nurses’ Learning in Clinical Practice: A Literature Review
Abstract
Background: Clinical learning forms an integral part of nursing students’ learning trajectory. It supports nursing students’ personal and professional learning experiences, enabling them to be competent during their professional careers. Support is given by clinical mentors who assess and encourage student nurses to integrate what they learnt in the classroom to the relevant clinical practice. Therefore, competent and qualified mentors should be assigned to deliver high-quality learning experiences to students, thus providing them with the nursing skills and knowledge required for competent and safe practicing. However, there are a number of challenges that prevent mentors from providing high-quality mentoring to undergraduate nursing students.
Aim: To explore the role of mentorship and its ability to improve nursing students’ learning outcomes for their future careers.
Methods: The study design is a literature review based on systematic review principles. Following ethical approval to conduct this study, a literature search was performed to collect relevant articles using the following four databases: CINAHL, COCHRANE, MEDLINE and DirectScience. Following the data collection, data extraction and analysis were employed to help answer the research question.
Conclusion: High-quality mentoring results in improved student outcomes and aids in developing students’ skills and abilities to be safe practitioners in their future professions.
Keywords: Nursing Mentorship, Clinical Teaching, Clinical Supervision, Nursing Students, Role of Mentor, Undergraduate Nursing