Mentoring supports a process that is about enabling and supporting, sometimes triggering major change in people s life and work

Transcription

1 NURSE PRACTITIONER MENTORSHIP Mentoring supports a process that is about enabling and supporting, sometimes triggering major change in people s life and work Clutterbuck & Megginson, (1995) Mentoring in Action: A practical guide for managers Nursing and Midwifery Policy

2 Nurse Practitioner Mentorship Mentoring has its origins in Greek mythology (The Odyssey by Homer, likely composed near the end of the 8th century BC ) and has been defined as a voluntary, intense, committed, extended, dynamic, interactive, supportive, trusting relationship between two people, one experienced, and the other a newcomer, characterized by mutuality. Hayes, E. (1998b) Mentoring and self-efficacy for advanced practice. A philosophical approach for nurse practitioner preceptors, Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, 10(2), 1-5

3 Nurse Practitioner Mentorship Through our discussions with NP s & NPC s it is clear that the pathway to becoming endorsed has many challenges. A potentially mechanism to support NPC s through their journey is to ensure NPC s have a professional mentor. Each collaborative group has provided feedback supporting the notion that a professionally designed and implemented program would be of great benefit to its members. Simply defining terms like Mentorship, Preceptorship, Coaching, Leadership and professional supervision proved challenging.

4 Nurse Practitioner Mentorship A NP is predominantly a clinical role now broadly acknowledged as the apex of clinical nursing expertise. An important part of becoming a NP is developing the leadership, organisational & professional skills required to successfully implement the role and beyond, but while they will often be considered Leaders, Pioneers, Mentors, Change Agents and even Advocates (as examples); NPC s can struggle to demonstrate these attributes. It can be difficult to assess the leadership qualities of NPC s. This is because leadership is a subjective concept. Leadership is often confused with management and those who are seen by their colleagues as leaders are not necessarily in senior positions. Watson, C, (2008) Assessing leadership in nurse practitioner candidates, Australian Journal of Advanced Nursing, Vol 26 (1)

5 Experiences of endorsed NP s NP model implementation necessitates a change in a service delivery model. NP s need to be organisationally savvy, able to communicate with a wide range of staff, understand, negotiate and work within the political climate of the organisation. These skills are required to manage any change process. I think that all newly appointed candidates need their own nursing mentor to help them through their journey, someone who understands the role. It is essential for Nurse Practitioner Candidates to have someone to turn to when they are facing barriers, someone to help them move forward. The support from the collaborative group was unprecedented, however, individual support from a nurse within the organisation who understood the NPC role would have been extremely beneficial.

6 Experiences of endorsed NP s I was so lucky that my DON supported the role and was experienced in implementing NP roles in other organisations. She was my mentor and supporter. Now I am endorsed I need to think about having a nursing mentor to help me move forward in areas like research and nursing leadership. I have great clinical mentorship from the doctors, but I am a nursing leader and need to focus on and develop these skills. You need a number of mentors with different skills during your candidacy and even following endorsement.

7 Nurse Practitioner Mentorship Subsequent to this feedback, four potential providers were identified and a Request for Quotations (RFQ) document has been completed. Further discussions with the Palliative Care and Integrated Cancer Services units have enabled us to consider a larger cohort so the RFQ has been updated to reflect this (and budget revised). We are now proposing 2 cohorts of up to 15 Mentors and 15 Mentees (i.e. 60 in total). This program will be a pilot targeting organisations receiving (already received) funding from DH for NP model implementation and have appointed a NPC. This is a voluntary program, whereby the Directors of Nursing will be contacted in the first instance and asked if their organisation would like to participate. If the response is affirmative they will be requested to nominate a mentor for the program along with their appointed NPC.

8 Guidelines for the mentoring process Voluntary process, willing mentor and mentee Not a direct line manager Both parties open to new ideas and change, respect Commitment to process for duration of time Both parties are willing and able to devote time, energy and resources to the success of the relationship The mentor has political knowledge and skills, competence and confidence in their roles, commitment to and leadership in their organisation, access to organisational resources and knowledge about the inner workings of the organisational environment. Hayes, E. (2005)Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, Approaches to mentoring : How to mentor and be mentored.) Vol 17, Iss 11, pg 442.

9 Proposed program The program will likely entail: An education program Evaluation process Have a focus on both the mentor and mentee experiences and outcomes and Be based on good practice/evidence of mentoring in the workplace

10 Proposed Program The overall objectives for this program are: To establish a NP specific mentoring program for public health services and evaluate its impact on both the NPC s and senior nurses that access it. To develop expertise in mentoring within senior nursing roles in public health services. To examine the role of professionally based mentoring on the development of NP clinical leadership.

11 Role of Department of Health NMP has been supporting organisations for approximately ten years to develop NP roles. Over this time strong relationships have been developed with industry. It is important this program continues to build upon these relationships. Specifically NMP will have a role in a number of key areas of the program, including: Liaison and communication with Directors of Nursing or an equivalent Executive officer, to establish initial involvement of NPC s and senior nurses in the program; Promoting the mentoring program to relevant health services and other key stakeholders; Determining the final participating health services; and Collaboration with the successful bidder to develop and agree upon program methodology.

12 Nurse Practitioner Mentorship If you wish to discuss further please contact Dan Ph: