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First time mentoring a student? Nurses share advice on Twitter

Acute care nurse asks followers for top tips as he prepares to take a third-year student under his wing and is inundated with recommendations

Acute care nurse asks followers for top tips as he prepares to take a third-year student under his wing and is inundated with recommendations

Acute care nurse asks followers for top tips as he prepares to take a third-year student under his wing
Picture: iStock

Nurses have been handing out advice for those who are new student supervisors after a registered nurse asked for help on becoming a mentor for the first time.

Acute care nurse Lee asked his followers on Twitter for their top tips as he prepares to take a third-year student under his wing next week.

‘Please just remember their name,’ urges nurse to first time mentor

Fellow nurses and nursing students inundated the post with recommendations including ‘be kind’, ‘address them by their name’ and ‘let them go home an hour early’.

One student told Lee: ‘Please just remember their name, being referred to as ‘the student’ just breaks me.

‘Even after being at some placements for six weeks and having to remember 20 names they can’t remember one.’

Nurse Tamsin Stone advised that he should ‘start with the basics’. She added: ‘Where to put their stuff, what breaks will they have and where can they go, what are the door codes – and work up from there.’

‘Third year nurses need to practice clinical decision-making in a safe space’

One nurse had some practical advice after they were left with ‘fainting students’ in the operating theatre.

‘On a practical note? Make sure to tell 'em to have a good breakfast and drink plenty water if they're going into theatres for a bit. Students (of all kinds) fainting all over the place this year,’ they said.

Others suggested asking students whether they had any deadlines for academic work during their placements and also trusting them to work independently to get used to qualifying as a registered nurse.

One said: ‘Third year nurses need to be able to practise clinical decision-making in a safe space and with support. It is one of the harder parts of transition to newly qualified practice.’

Above all, show kindness, advises university head of nursing

Newman University’s head of nursing Kevin Crimmons told the Nursing Standard that his previous nursing students had got the most from supervisors who made a little extra time for them.

He said: ‘Great practice assessors can remember what it felt like as a student in the placement area, greeting them by name on their first day and making time for them to be with you.

‘Regularly checking in can help them make sense of their day at the end of your shift. Ask them what they particularly wanted to get out of the placement and pointing out any ‘USP’ experiences they could gain from your area. Above all, kindness.’


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