Underachieving Student and Role and Key Qualities of an Effective Mentor

Discuss about the Learning, Teaching and Assessment in Practice for Mentorship.

A significant role is played by the mentors in supporting and guiding the students in clinical practice. Best professional growth and clinical practices are facilitated by mentoring for both mentee and mentor. Mentorship can be defined as the role of health visitor, midwife or nurse who facilitates supervision and learning along with the assessment of students in practice setting. Mentors are considered to be in a best position to appropriately judge the capabilities of the students as they spend much of their time with the students. Learning in an inter-professional environment is supported by the mentors along with the assessment and judgment of the proficiency of the students. A mentor plays a number of roles such as that of a coach, adviser, role model, problem solver, supporter, teacher, counsellor, guide, organizer and planner. The performance of such roles by the mentors enhances the learning of the students (Nowell, White, Benzies & Rosenau, 2017).  

When the nursing students interact with the patients and their respective families during their clinical experience, they develop a psychomotor, technical, communication and interpersonal skills. For the purpose of enhancing the clinical experience of the students, it is essential to provide appropriate guidance, support and supervision in clinical area. The misconceptions of the students can be effectively clarified by an effective mentor along with the overall enhancement of the competencies, attitude, knowledge and communication skills. This essay highlights a situation in which a second year student comes for a five week placement to a mentor’s work area. In the previous placement, the student has proved to be underperforming. This essay focuses on the manner in which learning, teaching and assessment strategies will be developed by the mentor for the purpose of supporting the underachieving student for the achievement of a successful outcome.

Some students are capable of achieving the leaning outcome successfully on placement while some are not capable of performing at the expected level. Such students constitute a major challenge in the performance of the mentoring role.

The failure of the student is a stressful and difficult experience for both the mentor and the student. However, knowledge regarding the accountability of the student as a mentor along with the management process of underachieving students significantly means that more confident decisions can be made (Hegenbarth, Rawe, Murray, Arnaert & Chambers- Evans, 2015).

Common Behaviors of Underachieving Students

Mentors are considered to be the gatekeepers who are responsible for ensuring that the students who are not capable of achieving their competencies and outcomes in practice are also not entered on to the professional register. This important stage of the process of assessment is responsible for the protection of public from incompetent, unsafe and unscrupulous practitioners. However, some concerns are there regarding the effective performance of this gatekeeping role. Therefore, there can be serious consequences of failing to fail on the wellbeing and health of the public served by them (Cardell, Koski, Wahl, Rock & Kirby, 2017).

Some of the key behaviors of underachieving students are as follows:

• Unenthusiastic attitude- lack of motivation, not asking questions or interest
• Displays high anxiety levels- lack of initiative of confidence
• Unsafe judgements or practice
• Erratic or inconsistent clinical performance
• Unreliable- poor attendance or poor punctuality
• Lack of knowledge, theory and skill
• Poor interpersonal skills- insensitivity towards interaction with client/patient/family
• Failure to develop skills and progress through placement
• Continual health issues/ preoccupied with personal issues (Butterworth & Faugier, 2013)

A number of roles are performed by a mentor for the purpose of supporting and guiding the students in clinical practice. Some of the roles are:

Advisor and Role model- a mentor advises the students regarding their career, building of networks and development of social contracts. An observable image for imitation is provided by the mentor as a role model which demonstrates quality and skills for the mentee to emulate.  

Coach and Problem Solver- as a coach, constructive feedback is provided by the mentor for improvement in the clinical practice of the students. Also, they analyze and solve the problems faced by the students thereby promoting decision making skills and critical thinking.

Teacher and Supporter- the mentor shares the experience and knowledge with the students as a teacher and supports them by providing moral and professional support whenever required (Foster, Ooms & Marks- Maran, 2015).

Organizer and Planner- through the organization of learning experiences, mentor help the students in the achievement of needed competencies and therefore performs the role of an organizer and planner.  

Counsellor and Guide- mentor encourages self-development within the students while performing the role of a counsellor and guides the students through the introduction of power groups and helpful contacts in the organization (Nowell, White, Mrklas & Norris, 2015).

There is a unique relationship between the mentor and mentee. Such relationship assists in the orientation of the student to the clinical placement setting and is also helpful in the introduction of the learner to the already working staff. The kind of relationship that exists between the mentor and mentee is also responsible for enhancing the comfort level of the students and relieves the anxiety which further assist in the promotion of student learning (Mikkonen, Elo, Tuomikoski & Kaariainen, 2016).  

Role of a Mentor in Clinical Practice and their Relationship with Mentee

Following are the key qualities of an effective mentor:

• Ability and willingness to effectively communicate what they know
• Preparedness
• Honesty with diplomacy
• Availability, approachability and ability to listen
• Objectivity and fairness
• Inquisitiveness
• Compassion and genuineness

Therefore, the mentor should these qualities for enhancing the performance of the underachieving student.

There are seven types of learning styles:

Visual (spatial) – the student makes the use of images, pictures and spatial understanding.

Aural (auditory- musical) – the student makes the use of music and sound for learning.

Verbal (linguistic) – the student makes the use of words both in writing and speech.

Physical (kinesthetic) – the student uses his hands, body and sense of touch for learning.

Logical (mathematical) – the student applies reasoning, logic and systems.

Social (interpersonal) – the student prefers learning with other people and in groups.

Solitary (intrapersonal) – the student prefers self- study and working alone.

The learning style of the student can be identified by recognizing the indicators specified above. Learning styles play a key role in learning, teaching and assessment. When the mentor will recognize the learning style of the student, it will become easy to determine the kind of method to be adopted to facilitate the teaching process (Nickitas, 2014).

The mentee is an auditory learner due to which he likes listening to the explanations and learns by repeating it out loud or keeping the mnemonics.  The mentee can easily find out the true meaning of the words of a person simply by listening to the signals that are audible such as changes in the tone of an individual. The mentee is also very good at providing the respective responses to the lectures heard by them (Wehbe- Janek, Markova, Polis, Peters & Liu, 2016).  However, in the previous placement, the mentee proved to be an underachieving student as the mentor did not use to spend much of the time with the mentee. The mentor was unable to properly perform the role required to be played by him due to which the mentee suffered from the lack of knowledge, skill and theory and failed to progress through the placement (Jennings & Slavin, 2015).

The role as a mentor is associated with cognitive learning theory. Its application includes teaching new skills and behaviors for the purpose of persuading and encouraging the learned behavior so that their attention can be drawn and emotional and strong responses can be created along with weakening the effect of constraints. For the purpose of nursing education, social learning theory is considered to be a useful tool (Haraldseid, Friberg & Aase, 2015).

Key Qualities of an Effective Mentor

Cognitive learning theory provides differing mental processes which also get influenced by the internal and external factors for the purpose of producing learning in individuals. When normal working of the cognitive processes takes place, then the storage and acquisition of knowledge also works well. However, in cases where such processes are ineffective, difficulties and learning delays can be noticed.  Such cognitive processes include observation, categorization and forming generalizations regarding the environment. Behavioral problems in the students can result from the disruption in such cognitive processes. Such problem can be treated only with the help of making changes in the disrupted processes. Such theory can be linked with the role of a mentor. The underachieving student here might feel that he is unable to perform up to the mark which is the result of the cognitive disruption in their perception. In this case, the mentor requires making the underachieving student believe that there are no deficiencies in his performance.

Similarly, andragogy learning theory provides the characteristics of the adult learners which include the learning experience, readiness to learn, self- concept, orientation and motivation to learning. The theory further provides that adult learning is not content centered rather it is problem- centered. The basis for learning activities are provided to the adults through experience and that they require to be involved in the evaluation and planning of their instruction. The application of this learning theory in mentorship provides that the instruction provided by the mentor to the student should allow discovering things and knowledge for the own self without any dependence on other people. This is due to the fact that adults are self- directed. Instead of making the promotion of self- memorization, the mentor should provide task oriented instruction to the student (Billings & Halstead, 2015).

Moreover, the behavioral learning theory focuses on the observable behaviors and discounts any independent mind activities. Learning is often defined by the behavior theorists as the acquisition of new behaviors on the basis of environmental conditions. This theory can be applied in case of mentorship for the enhancement of student learning as it describes different universal laws relating to behavior and relies on the observable behavior. The negative and positive reinforcement techniques of the theory can prove to be effective in case of mentorship for the purpose of reading or punishing student behaviors.

The clinical learning environment plays an important role in the learning of a student. The differences between the expected and actual clinical environment can lead to decrease in the interest of the students in the clinical environment and negatively correlates with their clinical performance (Bjork, Berntsen, Brynildsen & Hestetun, 2014).

Identification of Learning Styles and their Application to Learning, Teaching and Assessment of the Underachieving Student

The clinical environment portrays some characteristics that have an impact on the learning experiences of the students. Such characteristics include interaction and psychosocial factors, the physical space, teaching and learning components and the organizational culture. Such characteristics are responsible for determining the achievement of self- confidence by the students along with the achievement of the learning outcomes.  The clinical environment impacts the student satisfaction and preparation for practice. The quality of clinical learning is also dependent on the clinical environment (Sheppard- Law, Curtis, Bancroft, Smith & Fernandez, 2018).  

Improved Educational Methods- better educational design, better preparation of the teachers, incorporation of information technologies and systematic clinical training that promote learning.

Quality Assurance- trend of better external review mechanisms, evidence based education and learners are provided regular feedback and have access to access to information regarding clinical teaching quality (Papastavrou, Dimitriadou, Tsangari & Andreou, 2016).

Variable Quality- variable quality is often noticeable in cases of teaching and assessment particularly when there are widespread teaching responsibilities.

Service Pressures- teaching time is limited due to the existence of service pressures. It also requires the learners for working in clinical services where little educational benefits are offered (O’Mara, McDonald, Gillespie, Brown & Miles, 2014).

Finding More Appropriate Settings- the discovery of more appropriate setting for the purpose of clinical learning is considered to be an opportunity for this purpose. The opportunity particularly lies in those settings in which there is actual delivery of most of the healthcare.

Meaningful Role for Students- meaningful roles are provided to the students which in turn provides graduated clinical responsibility (Levett- Jones & Lathlean, 2008).

Reduced Government Funding- many countries are facing the reduction in government funding for the purpose of facilitating clinical practice.  Pharmaceutical companies and various other alternative funding sources threaten to distort the process of teaching and learning.

Lower Priority to Education- in most of the systems where research, clinical care and teaching are required to compete provides low priority to education (Fernandez, Sheppard- Law, Curtis, Bancroft & Smith, 2018).

Such strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats must be taken into consideration by the mentor.

The mentor should plan the initial interview by making the use of SMART approach. The SMART approach aims at specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time bound objectives.  By making the objectives of the mentorship specific, the mentor will be capable of making the student understand and implement the steps of bandaging. The objectives will be further made measurable and realistic by clarifying it to the student that the supervision will be dependent on bandaging policy. This objective is aimed to be achieved at the end of the placement which in turn makes it time- bound (Lee, Kitko, Biddle & Riegel, 2015).

Range of learning styles and Ways of Identifying the Learning Styles

Accurate record keeping stands for documenting any concern related to the student so the process of mentoring the underachieving student can be supported. The use of this information will be made for the purpose of providing evidence of support in case of the failure of the student. Good record keeping principles need to be applied and the documentation requires being non- judgmental, factual, including specific appropriate examples and making the identification of strengths and weaknesses (Nasca, Weiss & Bagian, 2014) 

For supporting the underachieving student, the mentor should take the below actions for enabling them to achieve the learning outcomes of the placement. The actions involve inviting the student for conducting verbal or written self-assessment feedback on the progress made till date. The action plan includes the identification of the areas of development/ learning outcomes along with providing a detail regarding the manner of achievement if the learning outcomes. Then the action plan lists the evidence of achievement along with providing a date for such achievement. Such action plan should be agreed by both the student and the mentor (Chen & Lou, 2014).

The role of emotional intelligence and self- awareness should also be understood by the mentor. For the purpose of effectively leading the underachieving student, the mentor should be aware regarding the manner adopted by them for confronting with life situations. It is the responsibility of the mentor to bring improvement in the own self first and then take steps for bringing improvement in others. Therefore, it is considered to be a prerequisite to mentoring that the mentor should be self- aware of who they are socially and emotionally along with the willingness to change. After becoming self- aware, the mentor will be able to better guide and support the student for enhancing the performance (Cassidy, Coffey & Murphy, 2017).

Orientation and Induction plays an important role is clinical environment as it ensures that the students are able to consistently receive the required information about the procedures, policies, documentation and standards that supports practice and familiarize them with values, goals, vision and mission of the placement. It is important for clinical area because it uses the existing resources for the purpose of meeting the constantly changing demands of the healthcare environment (d’Souza, Karkada, Parahoo & Venkatesaperumal, 2015).  For the team, it is important as it makes the student comfortable in the placement. Therefore, the mentor should accurately provide the orientation/ induction so that the underachieving student can achieve the required goals. It will serve the purpose of boosting the confidence of the student and will assist in adopting the clinical environment faster. Furthermore, it will also facilitate effective communication between the mentor and the student. When the student will be able to perform well, it will ultimately contribute towards the performance of the team (Flott & Linden, 2016).   

Learning Style of the Mentee

Mentoring provides the benefit of developing the relationship with wider team by way of offering increased teamwork. The underachieving student will be encouraged to work with teams which in turn will allow the student to develop relationship and will further assist in enhancing the learning the process in the clinical environment. Teamwork will help the underachieving student to clear any misconceptions and will gain knowledge from the knowledge of the members of the team also (Chen, Watson & Hilton, 2016).

The importance of feedback is not only for the students but also for the mentors.  When mentors will also receive a feedback from the students, they will get to know whether they are mentoring effectively or not. However, the feedback to the students by the mentors is provided in placement while students evaluate the experience at the end of placement. Importance of such feedback will be more if the students will also provide mid placement feedback to the mentors to highlight the areas of improvement. Both students and mentor are able to evaluate their progress on the basis of the feedback received. Mentor can also adopt the feedback sandwich strategy for giving effective feedback. His will not hurt the self- esteem and feelings of the student as the negative feedback will be sandwiched between a couple of positive feedbacks (Papathanasiou, Tsaras & Sarafis, 2014).  

Timely assessment is very important for the progress of the student. There are two types of assessment mid (formative) assessment and final (summative) assessment. The formative assessment takes place during the placement and is done on constant basis for the purpose of gauging the progress of the students. In other words, a feedback is provided to the students so that they get an opportunity for improving their performance. This assessment also prepares the student for the summative assessment. At the end of the mentorship, a summative assessment is made which involves the grading of the final performance of the student.   The assessment is important as it guides the student regarding the overall progress (Afzal, Babar & Aly, 2016).

The process of timely assessment involves conducting initial assessment regarding the student’s learning needs so that a plan can be developed for addressing such needs.  The preferred learning style of the student should be considered from that stage only. The assessment of the performance of the students is included in the accountability of the mentor. Therefore, the process of time assessment involves mid and final assessment along with constant feedbacks (Gopee, 2015).

There are a number of strategies and methods which can be taken into consideration by the mentor for assessing the competence of the student. The assessment can be done by a mentor through simulation, direct observation, OSCE (Objective structured clinical examinations), student self- assessment, testimony of others, active participation, written portfolio evidence, learning contacts, interactive reflective discussion, guided study, peer evaluation, patient comments, interviews, case studies, collection of data and team mentorships.

Conclusion and Recommendations  

Therefore, it can be concluded that an important role is played by the mentor in providing guidance and support to the students in clinical practice. This essay highlighted a situation in which a second year student comes for a five week placement to a mentor’s work area. In the previous placement, the student has proved to be underperforming. The mentor should understand the reason behind the lower performance of the student and should possess the required qualities for the purpose of enhancement of the skills and knowledge of the student. The mentor should appropriately identify the learning style of the mentee along with the reason behind the underachieving performance in the previous placement. The mentor should apply the learning theories in the role as a mentor along with understanding the impact of clinical environment of the learning experience of the students. The mentor should also assess the performance the student by making mid and final assessment and providing feedback to the student from time to time. Moreover, feedback should also be received by the mentor from the student so that any deficiencies in the mentorship can be covered. I have learned the importance the mentorship in the clinical setting with the help of this assignment.

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