Increasing supervisory capacity in rural and/or remote health care: mentorship of

transitioning new graduate nurses/undergraduate nursing students by

registered nurses

Project Team

Sharon Bourgeois, Associate Professor,*

Maria Mackay, Senior Lecturer*

Roy Brown, Senior Lecturer*

Nicole Tate, Director of Nursing, Bega Valley Health Care, Southern NSW Local Health District

Rhonda Wearn, Director of Nursing, Bega Valley Private Health, Pulse Health, Bega NSW

Siobhan Wragg, Lecturer* Carolyn Toldi, Project Officer*

*School of Nursing, Midwifery and Indigenous Health, University of

Wollongong

Background

• 2012 previous mentoring project at Bega Valley Health Service

• BN curriculum stakeholder meeting at UOW Bega campus was a catalyst for forging new relationships

• Previous relationship between UOW School of Nursing, Midwifery and Indigenous Health and Bega Valley Health Service

• 2013 ICTN Local Funding Grant round was foundational in revisiting the mentoring project

• Criteria supported an expansion of ideas for new mentoring relationships to be established

Project Aims1. Enhancement of collaborative partnerships between local health district, private

health facility and the University of Wollongong within the regional area - Bega Valley 2. Development and capacity building of the nursing workforce through contribution to

mentorship in a rural and/or remote region – Bega Valley Health 3. Development of a mentorship program across 2 health care facilities (public and

private) involving transitioning students; undergraduate students; and the nursing workforce using a practice development framework to enable participants to guide the development of interventions

4. Development of mentorship guidelines arising from the project using modified nominal group technique (for mentors and mentees)

5. Evaluation of mentorship from the perspective of the mentees and the mentors through a modified nominal group technique

6. Establishment of mentorship in the healthcare facility to support future mentoring activities, thus actioning culture shifts in health care and providing opportunity for considering other supervision practices

7. Resources based on mentoring provided for all participants (reference list; mentor and mentee guidelines)

‘Mentoring’ Project

• Timeline: January 2013 - May 2013• 4 sessions across this time at UOW Bega

campus• Sessions held in the morning for Mentees and

in afternoon for mentors (lunchtime shared session)

• Practice development principles to inform sessions and the activities to support effective mentoring relationships

Practice Development

• Key concepts underpinning practice development:Stated by McCormack et al. as sustainable person-centred cultures; enabling facilitation; authentic engagement; blending personal qualities and creative imagination with practice skills and practice wisdom; active learning; transformations of individual and team practices and corporate strategy (2009 p. 94)

• Concepts are translated into nine principles to guide practice development activities

Further reading:McCormack, B Dewing, J Breslin, L et al. 2009 ‘Practice development: Realising active learning for sustainable change’ Contemporary Nurse vol. 32 no. 1-2 pp. 92-104.

‘Mentoring’ Session 1

Background and Approach• Mentoring – Bega Hospital• Mentoring partnership

opportunity • Practice development• Hopes, fears, expectations• Definition clarifications• Claims, concerns, issues

Participant Responses• Agreement to 3 future

workshops – topics suggested by participants

• Format to follow Practice Development principles

• Final workshop to include evaluation based on nominal group technique

‘Mentoring’ Session 2

• Demonstrate reflective practice as a tool for mentoring and mentoring relationships (see example of mentoring relationship collage)

• Use active learning sets, good questioning and enabling for mentoring partnerships

• Support participants to engage in reflective practice

‘Mentoring’ Session 3

Sustainable person-centred cultures

• Appreciate the value of reflection as a tool for mentoring

• Discuss the essential aspects of an organisation that will facilitate a successful mentoring relationship

• Analyse ideas of mentoring from contemporary literature and evaluate their use for rural health care practice

• Discuss solution focused ways of working to enable the mentoring relationship

Modified Nominal Group SessionEthics – UOW Ethics Unit, HE13/151 ; Southern NSW Local Health District SSA/13/GSAHS/6

Evaluation of Process• Roster participants to enable

attendance at all sessions• Sustainable person-centred cultures

required i.e. support of participant attendance at sessions

• Transforming enabled through regular sessions each month facilitating reflection and skill development

• Valued sessions in the local area - enabled participation

• Participants valued engagement by UOW staff from local campus

Mentoring Relationship• Sustainability of mentoring

relationships thorough future sessions / activities – an ongoing commitment sought

• Start the mentoring relationship earlier than the new grad transition year – undergraduate student – RN mentoring relationships

• Participants recognised that mentoring has the capacity to transform practices (individual, team and corporate)

Outcomes

• Capacity Building– Mentoring partnerships in place– Practice development concepts use dot explore mentoring

• Principles• Skills• Techniques

– Guidelines developed from participants’ perspective about mentoring relationships

• Resources– Annotated bibliography on mentoring– Endnote resource on mentoring– Literature review

ConclusionThe project has facilitated and strengthened collaborative partnerships between local health district, private health facility and the University of Wollongong within the regional area - Bega Valley.

Through the project, development and capacity building of the nursing workforce has occurred through participation in the sessions as well as the establishment of mentoring relationships across health care facilities (public and private) involving transitioning students; undergraduate students; and the nursing workforce.

The explicit and deliberate use of practice development with the focus of working with both mentors and mentees has enabled participants to critically explore the practice culture of mentoring in healthcare organisations in order to bring about change that can be recognised as value in systems redesign. Sustainability of mentoring relationships in nursing as a change in practice culture will be a future measure.

AcknowledgmentsHETI /ICTN Illawarra Shoalhaven South Coast Local Project Fund Health Workforce Australia

In Kind SupportSchool of Nursing, Midwifery and Indigenous Health, University of WollongongBega Valley Health Care, Southern NSW Local Health DistrictBega Valley Private Health, Pulse Health, Bega NSW

Special Thanks to ParticipantsRegistered Nurses from Southern NSW Local Health District and Bega Valley Private HealthNew Graduate Registered Nurses, University of Wollongong - Southern NSW Local Health DistrictUndergraduate Nursing Students, Bega Campus, University of Wollongong

This project was made possible by funding from Health Workforce Australia

ReferenceMcCormack, B Dewing, J Breslin, L Coyne-Nevin, A Kennedy, K Manning, M Peelo-Kilroe, L & Tobin, C 2009 ‘Practice development: Realising active learning for sustainable change’ Contemporary Nurse vol. 32 no. 1-2 pp. 92-104.