Mentorship and professional role development in undergraduate nursing education

The Role Mentoring Plays in the Transition to Practice of Newly Credentialed Athletic Trainers

CONTEXT

Mentoring has been identified as an important method of supporting newly credentialed athletic trainers (ATs) during their transition to practice. Gaining a better understanding of this relationship could provide valuable insights that may assist employers and professional programs in developing a plan to better facilitate the transition.

OBJECTIVE

To examine which aspects of the mentoring relationship provided the most benefit during transition to practice of newly certified ATs.

DESIGN

Qualitative study.

SETTING

Individual phone interviews.

PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS

A total of 13 ATs who graduated from a professional master's program, were certified from February through July 2016, and obtained employment from July through August of 2016 participated in this study (6 women, 7 men; age = 26 ± 3 years; work settings included professional sports, college, secondary and middle school, and clinic). Data saturation guided the number of participants.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS

Phone interviews using a semistructured interview guide were conducted at 3, 8, and 12 months of work experience. Data were analyzed using a constant comparative approach. Credibility was established via investigator triangulation, peer debriefing, and member checks.

RESULTS

Participants recognized the mentoring relationship as a foundational aspect of the transition to practice. Mentors should be available by phone, email, or text to answer questions, provide feedback, or discuss ideas. Respondents wanted honest feedback, even when that feedback was constructively critical. Feedback was sought regarding topics such as patient care, communication, and networking. Participants needed reassurance and support from their mentors to help validate and improve their self-confidence.

CONCLUSIONS

Newly credentialed ATs should seek a mentor who will be available to communicate in various ways and will provide regular and constructive feedback. Future researchers should investigate how mentoring relationships influence other aspects of the transition to practice, such as patient care, overall job performance, turnover, and satisfaction.

Graduate-Assistant Athletic Trainers' Perceptions of the Supervisor's Role in Professional Socialization: Part II

CONTEXT

Many new athletic trainers (ATs) obtain graduate-assistant (GA) positions to gain more experience and professional development while being mentored by a veteran AT; however, GA ATs' perceptions of the supervisor's role in professional development are unknown.

OBJECTIVE

To explore the supervisor's role in the professional development of GAs in the collegiate setting.

DESIGN

Qualitative study.

SETTING

Phone interviews.

PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS

A total of 19 collegiate GAs (15 women, 4 men; average age = 23 ± 0.15 years; National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I = 13, II = 3, III = 2; National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics = 2; postprofessional athletic training program = 5).

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS

Data were collected via phone interviews and transcribed verbatim. Interviews were conducted until data saturation occurred. Data were analyzed through phenomenologic reduction. Trustworthiness was established via member checks and peer review.

RESULTS

Three themes emerged: (1) GAs' expectations of supervisors, (2) professional development, and (3) mentoring and support. Participants expected their supervisors to provide mentorship, support, and feedback to help them improve their athletic training skills, but they also realized supervisors were busy with patient care responsibilities. Most participants felt their supervisors were available, but others believed their supervisors were too busy to provide support and feedback. Participants felt their supervisors provided professional development by teaching them new skills and socializing them into the profession. Furthermore, they thought their supervisors provided mentorship professionally, personally, and clinically. Supervisors supported the participants by standing behind them in clinical decisions and having open-door policies.

CONCLUSIONS

The graduate assistantship allows new ATs to gain experience while pursuing professional development, mentorship, and support from a supervisor. The extent of development is highly dependent on the supervisor, but most supervisors mentor GAs. When looking for graduate assistantships, future GAs should seek positions in which supervisors actively provide mentoring and professional development.

Supervising athletic trainers' perceptions of professional socialization of graduate assistant athletic trainers in the collegiate setting

CONTEXT

Many newly credentialed athletic trainers gain initial employment as graduate assistants (GAs) in the collegiate setting, yet their socialization into their role is unknown. Exploring the socialization process of GAs in the collegiate setting could provide insight into how that process occurs.

OBJECTIVE

To explore the professional socialization of GAs in the collegiate setting to determine how GAs are socialized and developed as athletic trainers.

DESIGN

Qualitative study.

SETTING

Individual phone interviews.

PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS

Athletic trainers (N = 21) who had supervised GAs in the collegiate setting for a minimum of 8 years (16 men [76%], 5 women [24%]; years of supervision experience = 14.6 ± 6.6).

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS

Data were collected via phone interviews, which were recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data were analyzed by a 4-person consensus team with a consensual qualitative-research design. The team independently coded the data and compared ideas until a consensus was reached, and a codebook was created. Trustworthiness was established through member checks and multianalyst triangulation.

RESULTS

Four themes emerged: (1) role orientation, (2) professional development and support, (3) role expectations, and (4) success. Role orientation occurred both formally (eg, review of policies and procedures) and informally (eg, immediate role immersion). Professional development and support consisted of the supervisor mentoring and intervening when appropriate. Role expectations included decision-making ability, independent practice, and professionalism; however, supervisors often expected GAs to function as experienced, full-time staff. Success of the GAs depended on their adaptability and on the proper selection of GAs by supervisors.

CONCLUSIONS

Supervisors socialize GAs into the collegiate setting by providing orientation, professional development, mentoring, and intervention when necessary. Supervisors are encouraged to use these socialization tactics to enhance the professional development of GAs in the collegiate setting.

Concept analysis of professional socialization in nursing

PURPOSE

The aim of this study is to clarify the process of professional socialization, and to identify its attributes, antecedents, and consequences in nursing. Rodgers' evolutionary method of concept analysis was used to clarify the concept of professional socialization in the field of nursing.

SOURCE

A literature review was conducted by performing a search on scientific databases using the key terms "socialization," "professional socialization," and "nursing." Four hundred forty-six papers for the period 1995-2009 were found, out of which 47 articles and 4 books were selected for the analysis. The process was audited by two independent experts in order to ensure neutrality and credibility.

CONCLUSION

Professional socialization is a complex process with four critical attributes: learning, interaction, development, and adaptation. Comprehensive educational programs, competent role models, and the provision of adequate field experiences were found to be the antecedents of these attributes. They have either positive or negative consequences for the professional development of nurses. These findings not only add to the body of knowledge, but also serve as an important impetus for further theory development and research in nursing.

Factors of persistence among graduates of athletic training education programs

CONTEXT

Previous researchers have indicated that athletic training education programs (ATEPs) appear to retain students who are motivated and well integrated into their education programs. However, no researchers have examined the factors leading to successful persistence to graduation of recent graduates from ATEPs.

OBJECTIVE

To determine the factors that led students enrolled in a postprofessional education program accredited by the National Athletic Trainers' Association (NATA) to persist to graduation from accredited undergraduate ATEPs.

DESIGN

Qualitative study.

SETTING

Postprofessional education program accredited by the NATA.

PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS

Fourteen graduates (12 women, 2 men) of accredited undergraduate entry-level ATEPs who were enrolled in an NATA-accredited postprofessional education program volunteered to participate.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS

We conducted semistructured interviews and analyzed data through a grounded theory approach. We used open, axial, and selective coding procedures. To ensure trustworthiness, 2 independent coders analyzed the data. The researchers then negotiated over the coding categories until they reached 100% agreement. We also performed member checks and peer debriefing.

RESULTS

Four themes emerged from the data. Decisions to persist to graduation from ATEPs appeared to be influenced by students' positive interactions with faculty, clinical instructors, and peers. The environment of the ATEPs also affected their persistence. Participants thought they learned much in both the clinic and the classroom, and this learning motivated them to persist. Finally, participants could see themselves practicing athletic training as a career, and this greatly influenced their eventual persistence.

CONCLUSIONS

Our study gives athletic training educators insight into the reasons students persist to graduation from ATEPs. Specifically, athletic training programs should strive to develop close-knit learning communities that stress positive interactions between students and instructors. Athletic training educators also must work to present the athletic training field as exciting and dynamic.

Working in interprofessional primary health care teams: what do pharmacists do?

BACKGROUND

Interprofessional teams are forming in primary health care. Little is known about how health care professional roles and routines develop in this environment.

OBJECTIVES

This article describes the evolving routines of pharmacists working in new interprofessional teams, their perceptions of their roles, and perceptions of other providers toward the pharmacist role.

METHODS

Ethnographic methods were used. Qualitative data derived from practice documents, field notes from practice activity and provider-patient interaction observations, and transcripts from interviews with patients and practice staff were analyzed in an exploratory manner using a constant comparative approach and immersion/crystallization. For this article, data pertaining to the role of pharmacists comprised a case study subanalysis.

RESULTS

Two typologies emerged with some pharmacists found to be (1) physician oriented: responding to physician requests for drug information and other projects, and others found to be (2) working at multiple levels of interaction: providing patient-centered care, provider education/information, and initiating system-level interventions to improve drug therapy.

CONCLUSIONS

Pharmacist routines and their own perception of their roles differed across interprofessional teams. Differences could be attributed to different educational background, philosophy of practice or characteristics of individual pharmacists, and also affected by leadership and communication within family health teams (FHTs). FHT leaders wanting to include a pharmacist to improve medication therapy should demonstrate leadership and vision by articulating needs and hiring a pharmacist with matching knowledge, skills, and qualities. A similar, generic approach may be useful to determine the need for and roles of any health care professional joining the team.

Evaluation of mentorship programme in nursing education: a pilot study in Turkey

Mentorships increase the students' confidence, help ease the difficulties associated with their new environment and reality, increase self-esteem and help socialize students into the nursing role. The main objective of the programme was to support mentee students in facilitating their transition to the university and nursing. This descriptive, exploratory study was designed using Maslow's hierarchy of needs and a pre/post test Rotter's locus of control. Sixty-two (62) first-year students and fifty-eight (58) fourth-year students were eligible to be in the mentoring programme. Mentors and mentees contacted each other weekly as required to provide information and support. Nursing lecturers were available to support the mentors for regular contact over the 13 weeks of the programme. The data were collected by questionnaire for the first-year and fourth-year students. In addition, in order to determine the efficacy of the mentoring programme, Rotter's Locus of Control Scale was administered to first-year students both at the beginning and the end of the study. The majority of first-year students stated that they benefited from the programme. It was established that the mentoring programme influenced the locus of control positively. The mentoring programme may be used to improve the adaptation of nursing students to both the university and nursing profession.

Strengths and challenges of the first prelicensure baccalaureate of science in nursing program in Pakistan

With the increasing complexities of health care and the associated strong advocacy for baccalaureate of science in nursing (BScN) program as entry to practice in the developing countries, gradually, nurse leaders are moving in that direction. Although extensive information is available in the literature about the outcomes of prelicensure BScN programs in developed countries, little is known about the outcomes of such programs in developing countries. In this article, we report strengths and challenges of the first prelicensure BScN program in Pakistan. Using a focused ethnographic approach, data for this study were collected mainly through semistructured interviews of the graduates from the first five cohorts of the BScN program and their supervisors at Aga Khan University, Pakistan. Interviews were tape-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and content analyzed for explicit and implicit patterns of themes, meanings, and understanding about the program. Findings of this study affirmed the worth of BScN program for preparing competent nurses that can contribute to the development of nursing in Pakistan. However, various contextual issues and challenges in the nurses work environment have affected the utilization and retention of these graduates and hence the perceived outcome of the program.

Mentoring Undergraduate Nursing Students

Academic mentoring is frequently offered as one strategy to facilitate student success, but the research evidence may be wanting. The authors present an integrative review of the data-based scholarship published between 1992 and 2002. Analysis involved synthesizing the research evidence and presenting findings within a conceptual framework. Research priorities are offered.

Professional values: key to professional development

Humanistic nursing care requires application of not only cognitive and psychomotor learning, but also affective skill development. The nursing profession has focused on cognitive and psychomotor domain learning. However, knowledge in all three domains is essential for full professional development and, thus, socialization into the profession. This article discusses affective domain learning, specifically, value formation and the contribution of education, service, and the profession to full embodiment of professional values.

Evaluation of a mentor-arranged clinical practice placement for student nurses

Second year nursing students evaluated a new initiative, the Mentor-Arranged Clinical Practice (MACP), which supplemented their other clinical experiences. Seventy-eight students (95.6%) returned their completed questionnaires. Results indicated that the MACP program was beneficial to the students in the acquisition of knowledge, improvement of basic nursing skills, time management, prioritisation in patient care, and improvement in their confidence and self-esteem. Students identified six positive aspects of the MACP program: continuity and consolidation of nursing skills, improved communication and reporting skills, working in a variety of shifts, and working as a team member. Characteristics of a good mentor encompassed four areas: personality traits, teaching ability, nursing competence and interpersonal relationship. Findings suggest that there is a need for the development of mentorship models in the clinical experiences of undergraduate nursing courses, and the importance of effective clinical teachers in preparing nursing students for the workforce.

The value of student portfolios to evaluate undergraduate nursing programs

A growing trend in nursing education is the use of student portfolios for program evaluation. Incorporating portfolio analysis into a school's evaluation plan requires that faculty consider how the benefits and limitations of the portfolio development process impact the entire curriculum. The primary benefit of portfolio evaluation is that it permits the correlation of competencies attained by graduates with curricular outcomes. However, portfolio development also promotes increased student responsibility for learning, enhances faculty-student interaction, and facilitates changes in curriculum and instruction. The principal limitations of portfolio evaluation are the lack of research-based evidence that demonstrates the validity and reliability of portfolio analysis, time required to create a portfolio, and documentation storage.