Mentorship in Professional Practice

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Mentorship in Professional Practice

• Sandra Baulcomb

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Aims

• Aims
• To explore the concept of mentorship in health
  professional practice, and
• Propose a way forward with the introduction of
  mentorship into multidisciplinary teams

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Learning Outcomes

• By the end of the session participants will have
• Defined the term mentorship from several
  perspectives
• Explored the background to the development of
  mentorship in professional practice
• Debated the advantages and opportunities of
  introducing a mentorship scheme
• Analysed a 4 stage approach to a career
  development model based on mentorship

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Definitions of mentorship

• One of the many issues about mentorship is that
  it appears to have a great deal of and semantic
  and conceptual variability

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Origins of mentorship

• Said to have originated in American
• management thinking and was imported to UK in
  late 1980s.
• Parsloe (1992) McIntyre (1994)
• The term mentor is referred to in Homers
  Odyssey

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Mentor had to be

• Nominated
• Older
• Senior
• Imposed
• Hierarchical relationship

• A father figure
• A teacher
• A role model
• An approachable
• counsellor
• A trusted advisor
• A challenger
• An encourager

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Some more modern definitions of mentorship

• intimate personal relationship frequently
  developed between the master and apprentice
  Clutterbuck (1985 p1)
• supportive nurturing relationship which provides
  inspiration and support for a novice
  practitioner Faugier Butterworth (1993 P7)
• explicit purpose of the one assisting the other
  to learn Jarvis Gibson (1997 p10)

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Definitions contd

• Someone who assists and supports an adult
  student taking a pre-registration nursing course
  Neary (2000 p 19)
• who facilitates learning and supervises and
  assesses students in the practice setting ENB
  DOH (2001 p6)

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SCOPME(1998 P50)

• SCOPME offer a description of mentoring based on
  a synthesis of a number of definitions.
• The process whereby an experienced, highly
  regarded, empathic person (the mentor) guides
  another individual (the mentee) in the
  development and re-examination of their own
  ideas, learning, and personal and professional
  development. The mentor who often, but not
  necessarily, works in the same organisation or
  field as the mentee, achieves this by listening
  and talking to the mentee

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Morton-Cooper Palmer (2000 p46) Provide a
synthesis of three mentoring approaches

• Classical mentoring
• a chosen, natural informal relationship.
  Enabling in emotional, organisational, and
  professional terms.
• Contract mentoring
• an artificial, organisationally created
  relationship usually focused on specific helper
  functions
• Pseudomentoring
• mentoring in appearance only, short term and
  tightly focussed, e.g. support within placements
  in achieving a specific, narrow goal.

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Qualities of a mentor

• A good listener
• Respected as a professional
• Approachable
• Accessible
• Non-judgemental
• Enthusiastic, encouraging
• Wise
• Experienced
• Challenges, but not destructively
• Ethical, honest, trustworthy

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Features of successful mentoring relationships

• Commitment to meet
• Absolute confidentiality
• Mutual respect and benefit
• Ability to discuss and agree
• Purpose
• Boundaries
• Duration
• Inappropriate use

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Summary of success factors for mentoring

• Explicit support from senior figures
• Separate from other systems
• Voluntary participation
• Planned formally, but conducted informally
• Mentee chooses mentor
• Training and on-going support provided
• Does not exclude other sources of support

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Types of professional support

• Role
• Professional equivalent
• Teacher
• Union representative
• Patron
• Counsellor
• Colleague

• Function
• Someone to
• Show me how to do something I dont know
• Take my side if Im in trouble at work
• Open doors for my career
• Make me feel better when Im down
• Discuss my on-going work with

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Summary of obstacles/problems to mentoring

• Requires time
• Opportunity and training costs for the employer
• Where stress or crisis counselling is needed
• When the relationship becomes dysfunctional

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Toxic Mentoring Darling (1986)

• Dumpers not available/accessible
• in at the deep end
• Blockers avoids meeting the others needs
• Destroyers undermine, belittle, nagg

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Dalton/Thompson Career Development model. Four
stage approach

• Stage 1 Dependence
• The new professional is dependent on the mentor
  and undertakes a subordinate role in which they
  require close supervision
• Stage 2 Independence
• The professional and mentor develop a more equal
  relationship. The professional moves on from
  apprentice to colleague and less supervision is
  required
• NB many professionals will remain at this stage
  for most of their professional life

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Contd

• Stage 3 Supervising others
• Become mentors themselves by demonstrating
  professional qualities of a mentor
• Stage 4 Managing and supervising others
• Becoming responsible for the performance of
  others characterised by a change in role to
  manager or supervisor, being responsible for
  client caseload and personnel

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Implementing mentorship in practice

• It is important to clarify your purpose
  (philosophy/mission)
• Select the approach to mentorship most suitable
  for you and your staffs needs (possibly a
  combination of several models)
• Provide effective leadership
• Ensure policy guidelines are available and are
  clearly stated
• Ensure clarity of communication
• Provide the resources required including
  preparation of the mentors
• Provide effective leadership
• Identify protected time
• Ensure evaluation of the process occurs