CREATING SCHOLARLY LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES FOR

FINAL SEMESTER STUDENTS THROUGH MENTORSHIP

Dr Judy Gonda &

Associate Professor Jennifer Kelly

As many things do, it all started over Sunday lunch ...

Background

Increased levels of preparation in EBP for undergraduate nursing students by including introductory research topics in curricula.

Limited success in stimulating enthusiasm in these students.

Background

Students question its relevance to nursing and display a negative attitude towards research and scholarship.

Consistently low levels of enrolment in Nursing Honours programs and research degrees at the Brisbane and New South Wales campuses of ACU.

Background

Findings from a project at Finders University demonstrated an increase in students’ confidence in their ability to undertake research.

This had a flow on effect of an increase in Honours enrolments, university medal recipients, conference presentations and student/academic publications (King et al., 2007).

Aims of the Project To provide an opportunity to increase students’

awareness of scholarly opportunities in nursing; To provide a vehicle for students to become actively

involved in scholarship; To provide an avenue to enhance the professional

portfolio of students identified in the top 10% of their year cohort;

To mentor students with postgraduate potential for leadership roles in the profession from an academic and clinical perspective;

To facilitate congruency between academic assessment and professional development;

To enhance the student – academic – clinician relationship in the teaching, learning and assessment process.

The project

1. Clinical interest synopsis (250-500 words)

ii. Preparation of a paper for submission to a refereed journal

iii. Professional poster presentation at a student focused, public symposium

Mentorship

Students in this optional stream were also linked to an academic mentor and a clinical mentor

Mentoring is “a personal, helping relationship between a

mentor and a mentee/protégé that includes professional development and growth and varying degrees of support” (Ehrich & Hansford, 2002, pp255)

Intended learning outcomes

Develop knowledge and inquiry as they explore clinical practice using evidence based practice;

Develop a sense of curiosity while reinforcing the concepts of lifelong learning;

Utilise opportunities to use the clinical setting as a conduit to learning;

Discover personal scholarly attributes beyond those traditionally associated with undergraduate nursing students.

What happened in 2008?

8 students took the option initially 8 academic mentors 5 student selected clinical mentors

Outcomes

Semi-structured questionnaires:

o Students (6)“Gave me a real appreciation for research and the

great need for it”

“My research skills have doubled by the experience as it felt more than just an assessment”

“I think I would be more likely to take up publication opportunities in the future”

o Academics (2) Workload issues raised

Impact of the Project• Writing scholarships ($500.00 x 2)• 1 submission to a journal – accepted with

changes• 3 Conference poster presentations• 1 ward based in-service.• 3 honours enrolments

• Unexpected outcomes – – Much enthusiasm from academics in the

School.– Used as a template for the Leadership

option in the new BN

What is happening in 2009?

5 students took the option 8 academic mentors 0 clinical mentors

Expected to be an ongoing project funded by the school

Hopefully taken up by other campuses.

Workload allocation given to mentors

ReferencesAx, S., & Kincade E. (2001). Nursing students’ perceptions of research: usefulness,

implementation and training. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 35, 161-170.Bjorkstrom, M., Johansson, I., Hamrin, E., & Athlin, E. (2002). Swedish nursing

students’ attitudes towards research and development within nursing. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 41, 393-402.

Dorsey, L., & Baker, C. (2004). Mentoring undergraduate nursing students: Assessing the state of the science. Nurse Educator, 29(6), 260-265.

Ehrich, L., & Hansford, B. (2002) A review of mentoring in education: Some lessons for nursing. Contemporary Nurse, 12, 253-264.

Fonteyn, M. (2005). The interrelationship among thinking skills, research knowledge, and evidence-based practice. Guest Editorial. Journal of Nursing Education, 44(10), 439.

King, L., Neill, J., & Taylor, K. (2007). Improving undergraduate nursing students research competence and confidence through a mentoring project. In Enhancing higher education, theory and scholarship. Proceedings of the 30th HERDSA Annual Conference (CD-ROM), Adelaide, 8-11 July.

McEnroe Ayers, D., & Coeling, H. (2005) Incorporating research into Associate Degree nursing curricula. Journal of Nursing Education, 44(11), 515-518.

Sevean, P., Poole, K., & Strickland, D. (2005) Actualizing scholarship in senior baccalaureate nursing students. Journal of Nursing Education, 44(10), 473-476.

Suen, L., & Chow, F. (2001) Students’ perceptions of the effectiveness of mentors in an undergraduate nursing programme in Hong Kong. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 36(4), 505-511.