[Professor and mentor in surgery]

The surgical monitor supervises students, teaches them various skills and evaluates their progress. In the course of overseeing the students' clinical practice, the monitor helps them apply the theoretical concepts learned in class to the reality of life on the ward. If the experience is not properly planned, the goals of the clinical practicum, post-operative care, the student's personal goals and those of the monitor can become confused and intertwined. The author discusses the socialization process every student must go through to forge her own professional identity. Students must also adapt to the hospital "sub-culture", which can be dramatically different from nursing school, and they must learn to think critically and analytically. The author, himself a monitor, explains how the students' progress is evaluated. The monitor presents himself as a confident, independent role model, equal to others on the health care team. The article concludes by pointing out that the Quebec Ministry of Education wants students to become integrated into the future job market; the new nursing focus is educating people who can be independent generalists. To sum up: the monitor is a coach, critic, consultant, supervisor, and advisor--all rolled into one.