Clinical staff as mentors in pre-registration undergraduate nursing education: students’ perceptions of the mentors’ roles and responsibilities

This paper reports part of a multiple-phase action research initiated by a university nursing department in Hong Kong. Local hospitals were invited to collaborate in a joint mentoring programme which recruited clinical staff to mentor pre-registration nursing students during clinical placement. Interviews based on the five roles -assisting, befriending, guiding, advising and counselling, as outlined by the English National Board, were conducted to explore students’ views of the mentor’s roles. Findings showed that students in general agreed that the five roles depicted were necessary roles of the mentors. They saw the roles of assisting and guiding as most crucial, while the befriending role was useful to facilitate their settling into the ward. The advising and counselling roles were seen as less important. It was concluded that students tended to be more instrumental in viewing their mentor’s behaviours; activities that have a direct effect on their learning are considered as more important, while other factors which have a less immediate or less direct effect on their learning, are seen as of lower priority.