No continuity of mentor

jellybeans · Feb 15, 2012

Potbella said: ↑

Just be careful with this as you are supposed to work at least 40% of your placement with the person who is grading you. I have had this queried myself before and almost ended up redoing a whole placement block as my mentor I had worked with 80% of the time was currently doing the mentoring course and had to get everything they signed countersigned by someone else I had only worked with for two shifts! Double nd triple check with uni and get them to document it somewhere such as by email so if they query it at the end of your placement you have proof you made them aware and they said it was okay.

But that#s the problem, i haven#t been put with my sign off mentor for anywhere near 40% of the time!

Penguin · Feb 15, 2012

I worked my first placement 50/50 with 2 mentors for 9 weeks. It was fabulous having that continuity.

My current placement so far I've had a different midwife every single shift (some shifts I've had one midwife then at lunch been passed over to another!)

Although I have nothing signed off apart from hours, I do find it great to see how everyone does things slightly differently to see which methods I prefer and which I think I will take on personally in my own style.

I also find it nice that when doing something with a midwife, she hasn't seen me when I couldn't do it. Sounds strange but I have so much more confidence this way, rather than working with a mentor who saw me doing things badly a couple of weeks ago and I can't stop thinking 'she knows I wasn't good at this I wonder what she's thinking' etc.

Azalea · Feb 15, 2012

iolaus said: ↑

Apparently that is ok though if the person countersigning them is happy to do so

Yes mine was okay'd eventually but only after I'd pushed for them to double check... Didn't stop me panicking on my last shift!

Sapphire · Feb 15, 2012

I always have this problem on labour ward as there are so many students on at the same time- 29 of us on my last placement! Your mentor should liase with other midwives you have worked with to find out what you've been doing and get their feedback- that's part of her job. I've also found it really useful to get mentors to write a short summary in my placement book of what we've covered that day- something like 'today Sapphire worked in triage and showed competence in assessing labour, venepuncture and administration of medicine'. Just so that when it comes to signing off skills and writing your final report your sign-off mentor will have something concrete to go on. Sometimes it feels like you're shoving your book in their face but it's the only way it's going to get done.

ETA I've been told the 40% doesn't matter as long as you don't have trouble getting your book signed. Hope that's true as I hardly ever get 40%!

MrsC · Feb 18, 2012

I had this issue in the first year, it came as a massive shock after having almost total continuity in the comunity! Unfortunately it's one of those things that seems to be an issue year on year. There's really not much you can do about it other than making the uni aware of the situation and requesting more continuity in the next lot of off duty. The person who does the off duty does try pretty hard to get things straight so I'm sure it will be sorted.

Good luck!

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No continuity of mentor

jellybeans Active Member

Penguin Moderatorgator

Azalea Well-Known Member

Sapphire Member

MrsC Member

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