Psychiatric nursing students’ experiences of having a mentor during their first practice placement: an Irish perspective

Abstract

The concept of mentorship is widely advocated as a support mechanism for student nurse learning during practice placement. However there is a dearth of empirical work investigating mentorship programmes from the perspective of student nurses training to care for people with mental health problems. This paper reports on student psychiatric nurses' experiences and perceptions of having a mentor during their first practice placement. At the time of the study, in Ireland, students wishing to care for people with mental health problems were required to undertake a three-year diploma in psychiatric nursing. Successful completion of the programme meant that the student could apply to An Bord Altranais (Irish statutory regulatory body for nursing) to have their name entered on the psychiatric nurses' division of the register. The term registered psychiatric nurse corresponds to the term registered mental nurse in the UK. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data from six students who had just completed their first practice placement. Findings suggest that having a mentor made a significant contribution to student learning. However, one student described difficulties caused by the absence of the named mentor and as a consequence, this student became preoccupied with 'fitting in' and 'learning the routine'. This was in sharp contrast to the other students who described the effective strategies utilised by their mentor to maximise the learning opportunities. Bearing in mind the small sample size and the fact that the study was completed following the students' first exposure to a mentor, the findings provide some useful insights on the value of having an effective support mechanism for psychiatric student nurses.