Barriers To Effective Mentoring Of Student Nurses In Clinical Work Placement Settings

Literature Review

Research Title: Barriers to effective mentoring of student nurses in clinical work placement settings

Research Question: What are the challenges facing the student nurses during the mentorship process in their career?

Nursing is one of the prestigious professions in Australia. During their preparation, nurses undergo an extensive training process. After the completion of their training, nurses are expecting to join the job market (Parker, 2014). However, before the job placement, the student nurses are expected to undergo a mentorship process. Here, they are given an opportunity to be guided by their experienced colleagues who have been in the field for quite some time. At time, a peer-to-peer mentorship strategy can be applied.  According to McMillan, Higgin, Lathlean & Levett-Jones (2009), mentorship is a very important activity because it equips the student nurses with an opportunity to familiarize and adequately prepare for the challenging task ahead (Bates, et al., 2013).

In his research, Allan (2010) established that the mentorship of nurses is prone to a wide range of challenges. Whenever a mentorship program is rolled-out, it should be aimed at making positive contributions on the prosperity of individual nursing students (Eisele, Grohnert, Beausaert & Segers, 2013). This can be accomplished by delivering a discrimination-free mentorship to the students. However, as explained by these scholars, this is quite difficult to attain because of numerous challenges experienced.  These include stress, lack of preparedness, and poor relationship between the mentors, mentees and the mentees themselves (Shields, et al., 2015).

These are the similar sentiments that were echoed by McMillan, Higgin, Lathlean & Levett-Jones (2009) and Li, Wang, Lin & Lee (2011) who established that the nature of student-staff relationship can bar the mentorship process from going on as planned. Therefore, when mentoring the student nurses, measures should be taken to ensure that there is a cordial relationship between them and the mentors. In the research conducted by Wilson (2014), it was revealed that the mentorship of student nurses can be hindered by many barriers. In this hermeneutic study, it was found out that the barriers such as poor coordination of the students and staff can increase the stress levels. Therefore, for the mentorship process to be a success, all such barriers should be addressed. 

1. Qualitative
2. Grounded theory will be used because a theoretical framework will help in providing insightful background information to the researcher.  
3. The study will employ the use of qualitative research methods. Here, qualitative data will be collected from a proportionate sample of the target population. Data collection and analysis will be done using appropriate qualitative tools that can efficiently respond to the research questions (Rubin & Babbie, 2016). Qualitative approach is preferred because it will enable the researcher to carry out a detailed study ad get in-depth findings.
4. Data collection will be done using interviews and focus group. These are the most appropriate instruments that will help in collecting qualitative data. Interviews will be done by engaging the participants on a one-one session in which the respondent will be given a set of questions to respond to (Robson & McCartan, 2016). Before the interview, the researcher will discuss some issues with the participant. Among the things to be agreed upon are the voluntary of participation, confidentiality of the information provided and safety of the participant. Then, agreement will be made regarding the time and venue of the scheduled interviews. Focus group will be organized by having small groups of participants from whom data will be collected. Each group will be told to provide responses to the research questions. These are the only instruments that will be applied when collecting data for this research because they are suitable for the kind of qualitative study that will be conducted.
5. When planning to conduct the research, it is advisable to abide by all the organizational rules, policies and procedures governing research. For example, before proceeding with the research, permission should be sought from the relevant authorities. This will enable the researcher to be accountable and conduct a well-organized study that meets all the standards (Levy & Lemeshow, 2013). The seeking of permission from the authorities will put pressure on the researcher to carry out all the activities in the required manner. Therefore, it will make it easier for the researcher to abide by all the regulations governing the voluntary and safety of the participants as well as the confidentiality of their private information.

Complete the following table:

Research Project Title	Barriers to effective mentoring of student nurses in clinical work placement settings
Aim	The aim of the research is to study the barriers affecting effective mentoring of nursing students before their job placement. This is an important area that needs to be extensively researched. No serious research has been conducted on the topic. Therefore, by doing this study, it will be possible to get findings that will be of great value to the nursing profession.
Approach	The research will be a qualitative study using a theoretical approach. A theory will be applied to provide background information on the research topic. This is important because the use of the approach will make it much easier for the researcher to collect and properly analyse the data. Therefore, to achieve this, data will be collected using interview and focussed groups because they are the most preferable instruments for the qualitative research. These data will be analysed using relevant theories that explain about the research topic.
Design	The research design will be qualitative study. Here, an in-depth study will be carried out on a small group of participants. Once the population is identified, a small sample size will be selected and used as participants. The sample will be subjected into an interview and asked several questions to respond to.
Participants	The target population will be narrowed to the nursing students and experienced nurses who have been serving as mentors. A simple random sampling technique will be applied to select a sample size to be used in the research. The recruitment process for the participants will be done without any bias because each and every participant will be given equal changes of participating in the study (Townsend, Loudoun & Lewin, 2016). However, for the participants to be recruited in the study, they will have to meet certain criteria. Those who fail to meet the criteria will have to be excluded.
Timeframe	The research will require a total of 7 months to be completed. This is enough time that will enable the researcher to prepare, identify the research problem, research questions, identify the target population, select a sample size, collect, analyse and present the findings. However, for efficiency purposes, each of these activities will be allocated its own time.
Costs	The project is expected to cost $4,000. This budget is okay because the money will be enough to facilitate the project, cater for the logistical, and allow the researcher to purchase all the required supplies such as stationary, typesetting, and printing. Each of these requires a substantial amount of money to be done.
Benefits	The research is important because it will help in many ways. First, it will fill the missing gap in knowledge. As it is today, no much study has been done on this particular area. Most of the researchers have been concentrating on the organization of mentorship programs. It is only this research that has dug deeper into the topic to analyse the effects of barriers on effective delivery of mentorship program to the student nurses. Besides, the research will help in coming up with reliable findings to be used to improve the quality of mentorship programs for the student nurses. It is expected that the findings will be relied upon to inform decision making processes for nursing profession.

Data analysis refers to the evaluation of data. It is done using systematic and logical techniques. It involves the condensing, cleansing, and description of the findings. Data analysis is an important process because it helps in synthesizing the data before it is presented as findings for the research (Flick, 2015). However, for it to achieve this, it should be based on the principles of accuracy, validity and reliability. This is the only way through which the findings of the research can be relied upon to adequately respond to the research question. Therefore, deliberate measures should be taken to ensure that data analysis is done well.

Research Design and Methodology

The data for this research will be conducted by thematic analysis. This is a strategy in which the responses are grouped into themes and critically analyzed to determine the trends of the themes. Since many responses will be given, the researcher will have to evaluate each of them into respective themes before determining the most prominent themes (Rossman & Rallis, 2016). However, for this to be effectively done, some coding techniques might be used to help in assembling and organizing the themes so as to determine the pattern. It is only thematic analysis that will help in a proper analysis of the data for this research because it will help in a proper analysis of data from individual participants as well as the focus groups used in the study. If properly utilized in the analysis of data, thematic analysis will help in generating findings that can even be generalized to understand the wider concept of the research topic.

The research is expected to face different kinds of barriers. First, it is expected that the respondents might pose a challenge to the researcher. Some respondents might fail to accept participation. At the same time, those who volunteer to participate may fail to respond to the questions or give misleading answers that might interfere with the validity and accuracy of the data (Vayena, Salathé, Madoff & Brownstein, 2015). Besides, it is expected that there may be limited resources for the research. The researcher might not get enough money to cater for all the activities (Denscombe, 2014). Lastly, it is expected that the study can be hindered by time limitations. These barriers will be overcome by coming up with clear strategies. To overcome the challenge of respondents, the researcher will appeal to them that the study is purely academic and will not harm them in any way. They should be assured that their private information will not be leaked to unauthorized parties because the study will be based on the ethical principles of confidentiality (Zohrabi, 2013).  Finally, to address the challenge of resources, enough money will be lobbied for from all the necessary funders. On the other hand, time a well-organized flexible time schedule will be drafted to cater for all the activities to be carried out during the research process.  

The validity, usefulness and cost effectiveness of the research will be determined after the end of the study when the entire process will be evaluated. To ascertain the validity of the research, the data collection and analysis will be checked to confirm it was appropriate, accurate, consistent, and unbiased. Once it qualifies all these criteria, it will be presumed to be valid (Peersman, 2014). At the same time, it will be ascertained by determining if it adequately responds to the research question and provides reliable findings and recommendations. However, for the cost-effectiveness, the researcher will check if the research activities were done using the allocated budget. Meaning, it will only be considered to be cost effective if it did not pose a serious financial budget on the researcher.

The findings of this research will be disseminated through publication. After the research, I will send my manuscripts to one of the reputable journals to be reviewed. A peer-review of the research by scholars will make it to be one of the most credible research materials in Australia. However, before doing this, I will have to attend an annual international conference in which I will disseminate the findings to the delegates in attendance (Bryman, 2015). This strategy will enable me to spread the findings of the research to all the targeted audience who will rely on it to improve knowledge and quality of nursing.  

References

Bates, L. F., et al., (2013). Pediatric Dentists’ Job Satisfaction: Results of a National Survey.

Pediatric dentistry, 35(4), 343-350.

Bryman, A. (2015). Social research methods. Oxford: Oxford university press.

Denscombe, M. (2014). The good research guide: for small-scale social research projects.

London: McGraw-Hill Education (UK).

Eisele, L., Grohnert, T., Beausaert, S., & Segers, M. (2013). Employee motivation for personal development plan effectiveness. European Journal of Training and Development, 37(6), 527-543.

Flick, U. (2015). Introducing research methodology: A beginner’s guide to doing a research project. New York: Sage.

Levy, P. S., & Lemeshow, S. (2013). Sampling of populations: methods and applications. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Parker, S. K. (2014). Beyond motivation: Job and work design for development, health,

ambidexterity, and more. Annual review of psychology, 65, 661-691.

Peersman, G. (2014). Overview: Data Collection and Analysis Methods in Impact Evaluation. In Methodological Briefs: Impact Evaluation 10. UNICEF Office of Research: Florence.

Robson, C. & McCartan, K. (2016). Real world research. John Wiley & Sons: Hoboken.

Rossman, G.B. & Rallis, S.F. (2016). An Introduction to Qualitative Research: Learning in the Field. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications.

Rubin, A. & Babbie, E.R. (2016). Empowerment Series: Research Methods for Social Work.

Boston:  Cengage Learning.

Shields, J., et al., (2015). Managing Employee Performance & Reward: Concepts, Practices, Strategies. Cambridge University Press.

Townsend, K., Loudoun, R. & Lewin, D. (2016). Qualitative research in HRM: innovation over stagnation. Handbook of Qualitative Research Methods on Human Resource Management: Innovative Techniques, p.1

Vayena, E., Salathé, M., Madoff, L. C., & Brownstein, J. S. (2015). Ethical challenges of big data in public health. PLoS Comput Biol, 11(2), e1003904.

Zohrabi, M. (2013). Mixed method research: Instruments, validity, reliability and reporting findings. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 3(2), 254.