W3 - To-Get-There, Together: Creative Approaches to Mentoring Conversations

Abstract

The workshop is designed to enable participants to experience some of the Appreciative Inquiry (AI) tools used within the NSW Health Mentoring in Midwifery (MiM) Program. The MiM Program aims to develop a reciprocal learning relationship that expands opportunities for connection, learning, growth and support for midwifery students and midwives working in NSW Health. The workshop will commence with an overview of the NSW Health MiM program as informed by relationship-centred practice and utilising an Appreciative Inquiry approach. Facilitators will work with participants in small groups to explore Appreciative Inquiry tools used within the MiM Program. In closing the workshop, participants will have an opportunity to reflect on the use of these tools and the variety of ways in which they can be integrated within practice. The workshop showcases the NSW Mentoring in Midwifery (MiM) Program and demonstrates how traditional hierarchical relationships can be opened up through the conversations that flow from the use of Appreciative Inquiry tools. Participants will gain insight into how these tools can facilitate conversations to quickly build relationships, uncover new learning, and support people to move forward, together. The Appreciative Inquiry tools practised at this workshop were included when developing a structured Mentoring in Midwifery Program in NSW to promote conversations about midwifery practice between the mentor and mentee. These tools are readily transferable and can be used in day-to-day practice to enhance conversations, engagement, reflection and learning in the moment with other staff, women, and their families.