What are the attitudinal qualities of an effective nurse mentor?

 What are the attitudinal qualities of an

effective nurse mentor?


This question is at the heart of all mentoring relationships. Some mentor-mentee relationships do well while others do not do well. Studies have shown that the key reasons for failure in mentor-mentee relationships are the expectations and approach of the nurse mentor.


Many nurse mentors in the relationships that fail often have a belief that they should, and could. "reform" their mentees. These mentors, even at the very beginning, spend at least some of their time, pushing the staff to change.


Almost all the nurse mentors in successful relationships on the other hand believe that their role is to support staff, to help them grow and develop. They see themselves as a friend to health facility staff.


Very crucial for a nurse mentor is to build a good rapport with the health facility providers and this makes way for a fruitful mentor-mentee (provider) relationship.


While there are many, some qualities stand out as very important in building this rapport:-


  • Providers will feel comfortable when the mentor is friendly and approachable.


  • Mentors should have realistic goals and expectations of the providers, be able to give staff a chance to voice their opinions and choices in deciding on activities.


  • They should at all times maintain a positive attitude and approach.


  • Listening to providers is critical in understanding them and their needs/ideas.


  • Mentors need to respect and value the trust that staff places in them.


Rapport building


Rapport building is the single most important aspect of communication for all nurse mentors. All communication efforts can be futile if mentors do not have rapport with providers. Having rapport is the foundation for any relationship. Rapport with the staff can be likened to the cement that holds a building together.



Six quick ways to enhance rapport


  1. Take a genuine interest in getting to know what is important to the providers. They should start to understand them rather than expecting them to understand the nurse mentor first.


  1. Pick up on the keywords, favourite phrases and ways of speaking that the staff use and build these into the conversation.


  1. Notice how the providers like to handle information. Do they like lots of details or just the big picture? As nurse mentors speak, they should only give as much feedback information as they understand and grasp.


  1. Look out for their intention their underlying aim - rather than what they do or say. They may not always get it right, but nurse mentors should assume their heart is in the right place.


  1. Adopt a similar stance to them in terms of your body language, gestures, voice tone, and speed.


  1. Respect their time and energy.


Clearly, first impressions count. Do nurse mentors arrive for meetings and appointments hot and harassed or cool and collected? When they begin to talk, do they mumble your words in a low whisper to the floor or gaze directly and confidently at the audience before speaking out loud and clear?


In terms of building rapport nurse mentor's demeanour conveys a message. All parts need to work in harmony: words, pictures, gestures and sounds.


If nurse mentors do not look confident, believing in the messages people will not listen to what is being said. Rapport involves being able to see eye-to-eye with other people, connecting on their wavelength.


So much of the perception of sincerity comes not from what is said but how it is said and how appreciation is shown for other people's thoughts and feelings.


Interpersonal communication skills

Nurse mentors need to have good interpersonal communication skills which are directly related to initiating and maintaining effective and open communication between them and staff/ health care providers.


Following is the list of twelve interpersonal communication skills. These skills are used in a one-to-one session (face-to-face and over the telephone) and in group facilitation.


  1. Attending skills


  1. Listening skills


  1. Observational skills


  1. Appropriate use of names


  1. Speaking skills


  1. Responding skills


  1. Exploring skills


  1. Giving feedback


  1. Summarising skills 


  1. Problem-solving skills


  1. Evaluation skills


  1. Challenging and confronting skills (conflict management)



Attending skills:-

As a nurse mentor, you will have to be physically, and intellectually present in a mentoring session. The staff needs to be aware that you are concerned and attend to them wholeheartedly. This will enable them to interact with you very well. You can remember attending skills by the acronym "ROLES".

Relaxed Posture - When you sit, stand or talk you will have to be relaxed, calm, and composed.


Open posture - Try to avoid crossing your arms or holding a folder/file. This may

indicate that you are mentally closed to the mentee.


Leaning forward - When you lean forward towards the mentee and say/ listen, it conveys that you are concerned and interested.


Eye contact - proper, non-threatening eye contact will build rapport.


Sit or stand squarely - Face your mentee, maintain eye contact and communicate openness between you and the mentee. This will assure your mentee that there is no hidden plan in you.


Listening skills:-

Listening skills are important for you as a nurse mentor. Most of us listen for a short time, and after a while, we lose our attention.


The following techniques will help your listening:-


  • Make the effort to listen, remind yourself and stay motivated that you will have to improve your listening during mentoring.


  • Mentor in a quiet place (without any interruption) will help you to listen effectively.


  • Allow the providers to speak, don't interrupt when the providers speak, listen without any bias or anticipation, this will improve your listening.


  • At intervals, paraphrase or summarise what the provider has been saying; this will help her/him to understand that you are listening. For example if the provider told you about lack of gloves in the facility. When you summarise you can mention that you were telling me that you are not getting enough gloves to use while conducting deliveries. Is that right?"


  • If the provider is making many points, note them down; it is acceptable to jot down keywords to keep track. While you are taking notes you will not have eye contact, but keep nodding your head indicating that you are listening.


Observational skills:-


You can use observational skills to get a sense of how providers practice clinical skills and follow standard practice guidelines. You can also observe their ability to accept and learn.


Some examples are:

Observe what is the provider's general awareness of SBA guidelines and case sheets?


Observe how staff perform clinical procedures such as conducting a delivery, and counseling a woman on newborn care. Are they following SBA Guidelines and the case sheet?


Observe whether the environment is clean and organized.

Observe whether staff are using the appropriate personal protective equipment for the situation or the procedure? For example, when conducting a delivery, does the provider wear all the personal protective equipment such as gloves, mask, goggles, apron, and closed footwear?


Appropriate use of names:-

When nurse mentors call providers by their name he/she will feel that they are important. This will also help maintain rapport.


Speaking skills:-

As a nurse mentor, you will have to speak audibly and clearly. When you speak in a warm tone, and at audible volume, the providers will hear well what you say.


Responding skills:-


Responding skills are those skills that allow mentors to respond directly to what a provider has said to take the conversation further in a useful direction. When a nurse mentor responds it shows that she has been listening or, if the response misses the mark, gives permission to the provider to her back on track.


Respond to content/ facts through paraphrasing, if the provider mentions a lack of gloves, for example, mentors should respond by saying you were telling me that you are not getting enough gloves to use while conducting deliveries.


Is that right?" Mentors will answer feelings/ facts, for example, once the supplier mentions the death of a newborn because of a lack of elements within the facility, they'll answer the supplier by language "You should have felt helpless and miserable in that situation".


Giving feedback:-

When a nurse mentor gives feedback to a provider it ensures that both are on track. Feedback is a crucial part of facilitating and vital to your role as a nurse mentor. This feedback may be of technical nature ("You have performed aspects of AMTSL correctly"), may relate to general improvement of the provider ("You have made good progress as a provider"), may relate to the way in which a provider has conducted him/herself in a mentoring session ("It seems it was difficult for you to hear the negative comments of your colleagues").


Summarising skills:-

Summaries are essentially paraphrases of a larger amount of information or conversations with the provider. At the end of the mentoring session, it is better for the mentor or the provider to summarise what was discussed and close the session with relevant discussion points and action steps that are to be taken in the facility.


Problem identification, examining potential causes and problem-solving skills:-


Problem-solving includes root cause analysis (a thorough exploration of all aspects of a problem - using multiple WHY?) and discussion of potential solutions (see later Chapter). As it is done through a self-assessment process the solutions that make sense in the context of the facility naturally start to emerge. When the problems, root causes and solutions are written in an action plan chart the providers own the solution and work towards it.


Evaluation skills:-

At the end of a mentoring session, nurse mentors can evaluate how the session or visit went in terms of solutions developed, and whether amicable and productive relationships were established with providers. This process of reviewing and evaluating ends a mentoring session.


You can ask the following questions to the health care providers to evaluate a mentoring session:-


"How did you find the session?"

"Where do you think you can practice these skills?" 

"What did you take from this session?"


Challenging and confronting conflict skills:-


Disagree tactfully: During group mentoring/ action plan development, if a mentor disagrees with something a provider has said, she can ask the group "what do others in the group feel about this" or can say "there may be another point of view to this issue, and as a group, you can take a decision".


Take the utmost care not to humiliate or embarrass any providers when they voice different views.


Manage conflicts: During group mentoring and in action plan development, there can be disagreement on some issues. Nurse Mentors should not take sides, stay impartial and deal with the issue in a professional and objective manner.


Nurse Mentor tools

Each of the tools/ formats used by the RMNCH+A nurse mentors and its description is summarized in tables below. All tools can be found at the annexure of this volume.


Table 4- Intervention tools and their description



Community/Facility Coordination Activities

Nurse mentors in Uttar Pradesh are stationed at block facilities with a mandate to support and mentor staff at the block facility as well as other delivery points within the block (SCs and APHCs) to activate and strengthen quality RMNCH+A services.


While the nurse mentors will provide APHCs with some on-site mentoring, the bulk of their time will be spent at the block facility. 

As such, to ensure that facilities below the block level are receiving the necessary mentoring support, a certain amount of mentoring to the ANMS and SNS stationed at facilities below the block level will be conducted at the BPHC (or CHC) directly. 

In this way, the BPHC becomes the 'hub' for improving and activating quality services throughout the block.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mentoring Activities to Improve Nursing Service Quality

Image
MENTORING ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE SERVICES QUALITY OF NURSING A substantial amount of the mentors' time will be spent at the main CHC facility in the block. The main purpose of being in health facilities is to ensure the quality of services that encompasses both system-level issues and individual provider-level issues. At healthcare facilities, mentors should use the PDCA approach at two levels First at the health facility level mentors will help staff to improve service delivery by helping the health facility team to solve problems related to facility systems that hamper day to day functioning of the facility.  The mentor will encourage providers to understand that when they work together their collective strength helps to resolve certain problems. Second, at an individual provider level, the mentor's focus should be to improve clinical competencies.  This chapter describes how the mentors can use the PDCA approach and specific tools at the first of these levels - service quali...
Read more

What Is Infection Prevention

Image
INFECTION PREVENTION This chapter explains the importance of infection control at facilities, different components of infection control specific to facilities and how a mentor can actually apply the PDCA approach to set up or strengthen the infection prevention practices in a facility. Introduction and need for infection prevention practices Any person in the facility including its providers and clients along with their family members can be a source of infection. All objects that come in contact with any of them in the facility should be considered to be potentially infected and capable of transmission of infection. The most neglected service in a health care setting in India has poor infection control that lead to transmission of infections in the facility and community. The objectives of infection prevention practices are: To provide services to clients with high quality and safety To prevent post-procedure infections in clients To prevent infections in service providers To prevent...
Read more

What Is Infection Prevention

Image
  INFECTION PREVENTION This chapter explains the importance of infection control at facilities, different components of infection control specific to facilities and how a mentor can actually apply the  PDCA  approach to set up or strengthen the infection prevention practices in a facility. Introduction and need for infection prevention practices Any person in the facility including its providers and clients along with their family members can be a source of infection. All objects that come in contact with any of them in the facility should be considered to be potentially infected and capable of transmission of infection. The most neglected service in a health care setting in India has poor infection control that lead to transmission of infections in the facility and community. The objectives of infection prevention practices are: To provide services to clients with high quality and safety To prevent post-procedure infections in clients To prevent infections in service pro...
Read more