Mentorship in nursing: a literature review

The recent increase in published work relating to the supervision of nurses and in particular mentorship suggests that nurses value the opportunities that such schemes present for developing practice. Much of the literature s urrounding mentorship concerns the supervision of students in practice sett ings but more recently, especially following the changes to post-registrati on education, attention has shifted to the supervision of qualified nurses, Although the principles of supervision for students and qualified nurses a re the same, differences do occur in supervisory practices, This review exa mines the literature associated with the supervision of student nurses and focuses on the nature and practice of mentorship in practice settings, The literature reveals that confusion exists regarding both the concept of ment orship and the role of the mentor. Many authors propose models or framework s for mentoring activities. These tend to outline the stages of the mentori ng process and the relationship between mentor and mentee, No one model is seen as more appropriate than another and choice usually depends upon the m entor's familiarity with a particular framework. It is also evident that th ere is inconsistency in the length and level of preparatory courses for men tors. As yet there is in the United Kingdom no national minimum requirement or common preparation route and in practice mentors are prepared by way of the appropriate National Board Teaching and Assessing module and/or short local 2-day course.