Today, the nursing profession requires more from its workforce than mere knowledge of medical and technical skills. This extremely fast-paced, dynamic career demands personnel who are always matching pace with the transforming trends and practices. Hospitals, care facilities, and nursing homes are constantly bustling with oncoming work, compelling nurses to remain vigilant and proactive. As a result, many new nurses feel overwhelmed and underprepared in their first week. Find Here if you’re interested in earning a nursing degree.
Mentoring Novice Nurses
Undoubtedly, understanding the culture, norms, and protocols of the new workplace can be nerve-wracking. And that’s precisely why mentoring is a critical function in any healthcare organization. Mentorship, formal or informal, has proven to be incredibly successful in nursing. Anyone with updated knowledge and years of relevant experience can guide a novice.
However, mentorship is not limited to clinical training. A mentor can impart time management, patient care, research, effective decision-making, networking, and other critical skills. They can help guide new nurses about the workplace’s culture alongside interaction with doctors and other staff members. Most importantly, since this job can be physically and emotionally draining, mentors can guide new nurses on staying healthy and preventing fatigue and stress.
Alongside this, mentors can guide novice nurses about successfully propelling their career advancement prospects. By pursuing higher academic programs, nurses can ensure career development alongside honing essential skills. Besides, given the ease of eLearning, nurses specializing in any domain can reap the benefits of higher education. For instance, the AGACNP master’s degree enables adult gerontology nurse practitioners to improve acute care alongside developing relevant skills. Moreover, since higher degrees have become a requirement for most employers, nurses are compelled to enhance their academic profile. So, as a mentor, you can help nurses explore the career advancement opportunities that come with pursuing higher education.
Now, to make your mentoring even more impactful, let’s look at the tips below:
Walk the talk
Nurse practitioners must possess a wide range of skills and expertise other than technical and medical knowledge. For instance, time management, critical thinking, emotional intelligence, and analytical abilities are essential soft skills nurses must develop. Every hospital has different protocols and functions. A new employee can only become familiar with all the standards and requirements after spending some time and observing keenly. Words will always have their due importance but still cannot beat actions. That’s why the best way to train novice nurses is by showing them how routine work is carried out.
Job shadowing is a highly effective tool for training new hires or interns. Ask any new nurse to shadow you for the first week and let them observe how you perform your duties.
Be patient
A recent study reported that stress and fatigue are common amongst nurses. Many nurses, who left their job in 2021, reported burnout as the main cause. It’s no news that nursing is the most physically challenging and emotionally taxing profession. Nurses experience various obstacles at their workplace that make them demotivated, while the nature of their job is extremely exhausting. We understand how difficult your job already is. But mentorship requires patience.
Job shadowing itself can become bothersome as you’d have someone lurking by your side at all times. They might slow you down, distract you, or even stand in the way. If you take up this responsibility, you must stay patient and calm and ignore minor blunders.
Give feedback
Avoid overly praising or being too harsh. Positive and constructive feedback can go a long way. Likewise, always use a polite tone and appropriate words. Novice nurses will mostly be juggling work and study simultaneously; therefore, your feedback will prove paramount. Also, never hesitate to appreciate them over a job well done or improved performance. It’ll boost their confidence and ultimately motivate them to progress further.
On the other hand, constructive criticism should include what they can do next time rather than talking about what wrong they did.
Share your experiences
Often, seasoned nurses guard their knowledge as power. It reflects poorly on them as there should not be any politics involved. Sharing knowledge and experience gives the ability to reflect on mistakes and learn the best practices because the goal should always be to provide excellent patient care.
You can share anecdotes and funny incidents to lighten up conversations. Also, own up to your past mistakes and discuss how you overcame them. Sharing experiences can serve as a useful teaching technique.
Value the mentee
Knowledge and experience can sometimes make people proud. This sense of pride can make a person look down upon others, ridicule them over their slipups, and not give them enough room to grow. However, this pride can only cause harm.
As a mentor, you must show respect and importance to your mentee. Value their input and suggestions. Moreover, your body language and words should be welcoming and encouraging instead of demeaning or belittling. Treating them as equals can also boost their confidence, urging them to learn more.
Let them find their way
There are many ways to go about a procedure. While technical and medical functioning remains unchanged, nursing is dynamic, and every nurse works in ways that best suit them. Let your mentee observe these differences and assist them in developing their process. In the end, what is required of them is to get the job done. If they do it differently than you, you must encourage them.
Be humble
Healthcare is a dynamic field. With the advancement of technology, this field keeps changing its ways over time. So, there’s no shame in admitting when you don’t possess certain knowledge. You can even capitalize on this opportunity to teach them how to find the answers. Learning should never stop, and mentoring can be two-way. For this reason, you should always be open to learning a thing or two along the process.
Conclusion
While nursing is a highly rewarding and lucrative field, it has its share of challenges and obstacles. It takes years of experience and sturdy mettle to familiarize and adapt to the exhausting routine of nurses. Even then, the healthcare system keeps changing, and nurses must keep themselves updated to ensure career success. This profession requires physical strength and emotional endurance to deal with all sorts of situations that can contribute to stress and burnout. In this regard, mentoring can prove monumental in preparing novice nurses to tackle any unforeseen event or challenging work routines. However, mentoring is easier said than done, and that’s why you need some tricks and tips up your sleeve. Start by job shadowing, providing feedback, being humble and patient, and you’ll be well on your way.
