The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC 2006), identifies what a post registration nurse requires to fulfill the role of a mentor in order to formally assess student nurses. According to Philips (1996), the presence of a good mentor is crucial to the student’s well being and learning potential. Nursing has grown so complex that standardisation and routines are no longer possible and can be seen as poor practice (CQC 2010). The complexity and responsibility in nursing practice now requires ongoing development in our career. This means an understanding of the differences between experienced nurse and novice is important. Patricia Benner’s (1982) Novice to Expert discussed the different levels of proficiency one passes through as he develops his skills.

The learner I taught was a Care Assistant whom I believe is at Novice level on the specific task of obtaining tympanic temperature. I however am a novice at being a mentor and so can empathise with the care assistants feelings at learning a new skill. According to Benner (1982), novices have no experience with the situations in which they are expected to perform tasks. In order to prepare them for these situations, they are taught about them. Then they focus on the features of a task, which they easily recognize even without experience.
These tasks in my work place include obtaining temperature, blood pressure, weight, and other measurable parameters of a client’s condition. The difficulty that the learner may come across when performing these tasks is the inability to use critical judgment and understand when measurements taken are identifying deterioration in condition.

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As a novice myself, at first, I was quite worried about how to teach the care assistant the task but he was interested to learn how to perform the task. Firstly,
I took into consideration the learner’s learning styles. An individual’s learning style describes how new information is processed, internalized, and retained
(Fang 2002). I needed to formulate a teaching plan that would cater for the learners’ learning styles. Peter Honey and Alan Mumford (1986) discussed four kinds of learning styles, which are activist, reflector, theorist, and pragmatist. I prepared a teaching session, knowing that the learner falls between being a theorist by giving handouts and as being pragmatist I allowed him to be handson and encouraged him to ask questions. Since nursing is a profession where practical and theoretical knowledge needs to be integrated, and clinical practice is significant for the development of a learner. (Carlson et al 2009) Using the
VARK test, visual, aural, reading/writing, and kinesthetic sensory modalities determines the different ways of receiving information (Fleming 2004); the learner has a strong preference for learning by kinesthetic, which is learning by doing. With this knowledge then I considered my teaching strategy. Teaching techniques are chosen to fit the activity and according to the learner’s level of knowledge (Carlson, et al 2009). I taught the learner how to obtain tympanic temperature through

lecture

using

a

PowerPoint

presentation,

and

demonstration. In order to provide a healthy learning environment, the mentor and the learner should have a trustworthy and professional relationship
(Carlson, et al 2009). I had a trusted relationship, which can be seen as a prerequisite for qualitative mentoring. I encouraged the learner to express his ideas and think outside the box by creating a learning environment that is not intimidating where he can ask anything without being told that he is wrong. I

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allowed the learner to demonstrate the task and be guided through the first time by myself and then the learner performs the task competently (Carlson, et al
2009).

The second time, the learner recall the knowledge acquired by

demonstrating the skill competently.

Walsh (2010) stated that providing feedback is an important aspect of supporting a student in