[Can contact nurses point the way to competence in practice? Nurses as practice mentors in nursing education]

The contact nurse is a central person as a carrier of knowledge and experience in nursing practice, which is important that the student nurse has access to. In order to gain insight into the passage of knowledge between 3 contact nurses and their students, I have carried out a qualitative investigation.

The method chosen is that of participation, open observation and semi-structured interviews.

While guiding the student, the contact nurse made explicit her way of judging specific nursing situations. She appealed to the use of perceptive insight, and made explicit the complexity in an "everyday situation" in nursing practice. Counselling in patient-situations thus reflects the value of the traditional master-apprentice roles. Professional argumentation delving deeper than more down-to-earth judgements, appears to be absent from the investigation. This shows the importance of a greater degree of reflection in the contact nurse's role as a counsellor.