Healthcare Mentorship

Introduction

The study intends to showcase those efficient mentors, who develop the skills sets of healthcare professionals for supporting their career development process. Mentoring includes mutually as well as the voluntarily shared relationship to benefit both the mentor and the nursing professionals. As mentioned by Hodgson & Scanlan (2013), mentorship is of immense importance as it helps in maintaining the integral nursing practices that incorporate career development, caring, personal growth, nurturance and empowerment. One of the key characteristics of a mentor in the healthcare setting is to enhance the skills and knowledge of the healthcare professionals by sharing tacit knowledge supporting the healthcare professionals in making difficult decisions (Hodgson & Scanlan, 2013).

The mentor focuses on developing the skill-set of healthcare professionals by facilitating professional growth and clinical practices. A mentor must align with the current clinical practices and policies to guide the healthcare personnel. It is also one of the most significant tasks of a mentor that he/she provides guidance and explanation to the nursing department regarding the change in medications and therapies (Hodgson & Scanlan, 2013). Takvorian (2017) mentioned that leadership is continued through mentoring, as the formal training, internship and practices provide experience to the healthcare faculty and nurses for evidence-based practices so that they can take up decisions in critical situations as well as on the leadership roles. A nurse mentor can recognize the qualities of a leader in novice nurses and after the acknowledgement, can provide them with formal training and groom them for positioning themselves in the leadership role in the future (Takvorian, 2017).

Also in relation to the healthcare students, the mentor actively engages themselves in the trainee’s development that determines the success of the healthcare student’s career in clinical research. The mentor provides all the functions such as career guidance, counseling, teaching, discipline and advice for producing more healthcare service providers (Shaha, Nodellb, Montanoc, Behrensb & Zuntd, 2012).