National Mentoring Day - We are #InItTogether

As mentioned in the beautifully written editorial piece in the September 2017 issue of The Practising Midwife by Anna Byrom, I am one of the few who have been working on a twitter campaign to support the relationship between students and mentors in clinical practice.

On today - national mentoring day, it’s important for Midwives and students alike to discuss the mentor relationship and how this is crucial to the future of midwifery care.

#InItTogether is the twitter hashtag and it is for collating stories, advice, experiences and support for student midwives, midwives, new mentors and other healthcare professionals to read and bring awareness between the importance of the relationship between student and allocated mentor.

The NMC are currently consulting a review of the standards and frameworks for both midwifery and nursing education and one of the recommendations  that has come out of this includes the introduction of mentorship into the job role for a registered midwife. Standards have been reviewed to allow any midwife who has one year clinical experience to be able to support a student in practice and mentor them.

With this introduction more and more midwives will be expected to teach and support students in placement experiences. Some midwives who have not mentored a student for a while, and some newly qualified. Students will also be able to experience a range of clinical skills and techniques from a range of midwives. I believe that when you experience so many different practices that make you think and make you wonder, then that is where the learning happens. You can develop the type of midwife you wish to be by experiencing different practices.

Hopefully this will help to standardise continuity of care between midwives in placement areas and trust, and bring more fluidity between theory taught at university and clinical practice.

The more people who contribute to this campaign and help support the student/mentor relationship, the more the relationship can develop, and benefit both students and midwives.

Ruth

twitter:@ruth_stmw