Mentoring, Preceptorship and Clinical Supervision

Newly qualified nurses often experience difficulties moving from the role of student to qualified nurse. It has been formally recognized that these nurses require a support network to enable them to make this transition smoothly. Preceptorship is an important part of the UKCC's post-registration education and practice proposals. They recommend a period of 4 months under the guidance of a preceptor to enable newly appointed practitioners to achieve confidence within practice.

This new edition covers the essential information required to provide learning and support for newly qualified staff. It provides an excellent introduction that is current, relevant and comprehensive in its coverage. Additions to this new edition include coverage of clinical supervision and its relationship to mentoring and preceptorship. This text describes in detail the three main support roles: clinical supervision, mentoring, and preceptorship. These roles are illustrated throughout by case studies.

Foreword by Professor Malcolm Tight, Preface, Acknowledgements, The context of health care work, Mentoring in action, Becoming accountable: preceptorship in clinical practice, Clinical supervision: making the connections, Providing a professional support framework, Postscript by Brigid Procter, Index REVIEW OF THE FIRST EDITION

"All you ever wanted to know about mentoring and preceptorship but were afraid to ask!"

"The readable, common sense approach, coupled with clever interweaving of relevant literature, makes it an equally valuable text for ward area, college library and individual purchase"

Journal of Inter professional Care

Reviews of the second edition:

"Most wards should carry a copy, and all libraries. This is a good-value book that relates well to clinical practice."Professional Nurse

"This is a welcome second edition of a valuable resource book for those involved in support roles in clinical practice, including practitioners, managers and educationalists." Journal of Nursing Management

Alison Morton-Cooper has had many years of experience in the field of health care, in health services journalism, as a health educator and latterly as a senior nurse and lecturer in continuing professional education. Her MEd and PhD in Continuing Education from the University of Warwick, England, led to substantive research as to the ways health professionals learn best from practice. Last but not least, she is the mother of a teenage son diagnosed as having high functioning autism, and she is an experienced advocate for families affected by autism. Introducing learning support systems into clinical practice is a major issue for today’s health professional. As practitioners take on the demands of lifelong learning, educators and employers have a responsibility to ensure support systems provide the right stimulus for role learning and the acquisition of professional skills.

Mentoring, Preceptorship and Clinical Supervision: A Guide to Professional Support Roles in Clinical Practice will stimulate fresh thinking about what we need and can gain from professional learning support. It challenges professionals to recognise the value of support in promoting trust and collegiality within the diverse settings used to promote learning in health care.

This book places support high on the health care professions’ educational agenda by:

• 
  
• Explaining why professional learning support is so essential to the development of safe practice in health care
• 
  
• Documenting and evaluating the history and evolution of relevant support concepts
• 
  
• Presenting new, research-based evidence as to the conditions which best enable practitioners to learn from experience in clinical practice
• 
  
• Clarifying the all important overlaps and distinctions between support roles, so that practitioners are clear about the qualities, skills and preparation required

Practitioners providing support, educators and academics studying support dynamics, policymakers and employers who set standards for professional health care education and practice, will all find the book a helpful resource in redefining the important issues facing practitioners today.