A qualitative analysis of student nurses' experiences of mentorship

Increasing awareness of the incidence of stress amongst nurse learners, the introduction of continuous assessment of basic courses and successive and continuing ambiguous directives from the English National Board for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting have led to widespread implementation of mentorship systems in this country. Considerable variation in terms of mentor selection, preparation, role and function clearly exists, against a background of questionable cultural relevance and suspect research. This small study, conducted as part of an honours' degree programme and completed in 1992, sought to find out what student nurses themselves thought about mentorship. Using group discussion and individual interviews, the views of 16 third-year students on a traditional RGN programme were explored, and the resulting qualitative data organized and presented using a method of thematic analysis. A ward culture is revealed, that not only continues to separate those with knowledge from those who need to learn, but also reinforces the position of the student through both covert and overt mechanisms of control. Examples of supportive, non-supportive and dissupportive relationships were described. Mentorship was described in terms of assessment and appraisal; the students apparent preoccupation with achieving a satisfactory ward report clearly influenced both their relationships and behaviour with trained staff. Mentorship for these students seemed to be more about control than support.