Abstract
Important information about the clinical education can be revealed by nursing students’ initial expectations and final evaluation of mentors’ competences, and mentor’s self-evaluation of their competences. The aim of this study was to examine whether these constructs can be used for evaluating the atmosphere in clinical education. This was a nonexperimental prospective study. Data were collected between January and April 2012, in 12 clinics at the University Hospital Osijek. The participants were undergraduate nursing students in years 1, 2, and 3 (n = 150) and their mentors (n = 35) at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Osijek, during the academic year of 2012/2013. The instrument was a modified version of the questionnaire taken from The Nursing Clinical Teacher Effectiveness Inventory (NCTEI). Prior to clinical practice, the students evaluated the desirability of each competence expected from a mentor; after the clinical practice, the students estimated how often their mentor possessed and applied those competences. Mentors have evaluated their own competences according to the same items. Comparison of students’ expectations and estimates shows significantly higher expectations of first and third year students (p <0.001). Mentors’ self-assessed competences, compared to students' evaluations, were rated significantly higher by mentors of all three years (p <0,001). The comparison of nursing students’ initial expectations and final evaluation of mentors’ competences, and mentor’s self-evaluation of their competences, when they are significantly different, can provide relevant information about potential problem in clinical education.
Highlights
The quality of clinical practice depends on the quality of clinical teaching, which largely depends on the clinical competence of mentors [1]
Nursing mentors’ competences, roles and responsibilities are described as taking responsibility for and accepting clinical education duties while providing conditions for the teaching and transfer of professional knowledge, skills and experience to establish an effective relation with the student; introducing the student to the clinical practice program; identifying possible unpredictable situations or incidents [1]; providing continuous professional support and guidance and evaluating students’ competences while documenting the students’
Effective clinical education relies on many factors, one of which will be the assessment of mentor competence
Summary
The quality of clinical practice depends on the quality of clinical teaching, which largely depends on the clinical competence of mentors [1]. A combination of self-assessment and assessment of mentors' competences is necessary to ensure an effective clinical education [12] This awareness helps the individual to become active and willing to introduce the required changes (i.e., to improve in personal and professional development as a mentor). According to Dunning et al (2004), many mentors underestimate or even neglect self-assessment and ignore valuable information (e.g. dissonance between mentors’ self-assessment and their actual level of knowledge) [14]. Differences between students' expectations, students' evaluations, and mentors’ self-assessments indicate a lack of information exchange on each other's expectations, as well as a lack of feedback on of students’ and mentors’ performance [2, 3] These shortcomings significantly affect the final quality of interpersonal relationships and mentoring process as a whole. The aims of this study are to examine: whether there are any differences between students’ expectations and assessments for each study year, during the academic year of 2012/2013 and whether there are any differences between students’ assessments and mentors’ self- evaluation for each study year, during the academic year of 2012/2013
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