One of the biggest apprehensions I had when starting clinical practice, aside from my lack of clinical skills, was the relationship I would have with my mentor. I didn’t identify this as a concern during the application and interview process. It wasn’t until the first day of my course when we were discussing our hopes and fears in groups that it seemed to be a recurring theme.
I hadn’t really considered it until this point. Not that I was completely naive – at no point did I think I would be left alone to deliver a baby, I just didn’t then rationalise this would mean working with a midwife. Or that there was a chance we wouldn’t get along.
Not to boast, but I am quite a likable person. I have over 300 friends on Facebook I’ll have you know! Of course there are certain people who I would choose to spend my time with, but there aren’t many people I can’t have, at least a working relationship with. So, you can probably understand why I was confused as to why all my new classmates were so worried about meeting their mentor.
As far as I was concerned, midwives have to be nice, right? It's part of the job description surely. Why was everyone so intimidated by them? However, as the induction process continued, I started to get more and more fixated on this as yet faceless person who I would be shadowing.
The lecturers made us aware that are mentors would be watching us from the very moment we started working with them. If that sentiment isn’t enough to send shivers down your spine, I don’t know what is. We heard phrases like assessment, grading, cause for concern, and very little about the nurturing and guiding relationships I have come to know from my mentors.
For that is what mentorship is all about. True, they are marking your performance and assessing you against set criteria, but they are also moulding and shaping you into a midwife of the future. Each midwife works in a slightly different way, and as a student you have the unique opportunity to soak up all these styles and create your own from the best of each. I know for a fact that I still carry out my postnatal checks in exactly the same way as my first community mentor.
It is also important to consider what it must be like for the midwife to be followed around by the questioning and scared novice you will undoubtedly be as a first year. And still as a third year, come to think about it. Everything that you do, they are accountable and responsible for. That is a lot of trust for them to have in someone they have only just met. Perhaps they should be more scared of the students than the students are of them!
As I am nearing graduation, I have been thinking a lot about the sort of mentor I will be. I hope I am half as good as the mentors I have had throughout my training. See you next week.
I hadn’t really considered it until this point. Not that I was completely naive – at no point did I think I would be left alone to deliver a baby, I just didn’t then rationalise this would mean working with a midwife. Or that there was a chance we wouldn’t get along.
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| Mentors; guiding the way |
Not to boast, but I am quite a likable person. I have over 300 friends on Facebook I’ll have you know! Of course there are certain people who I would choose to spend my time with, but there aren’t many people I can’t have, at least a working relationship with. So, you can probably understand why I was confused as to why all my new classmates were so worried about meeting their mentor.
As far as I was concerned, midwives have to be nice, right? It's part of the job description surely. Why was everyone so intimidated by them? However, as the induction process continued, I started to get more and more fixated on this as yet faceless person who I would be shadowing.
The lecturers made us aware that are mentors would be watching us from the very moment we started working with them. If that sentiment isn’t enough to send shivers down your spine, I don’t know what is. We heard phrases like assessment, grading, cause for concern, and very little about the nurturing and guiding relationships I have come to know from my mentors.
For that is what mentorship is all about. True, they are marking your performance and assessing you against set criteria, but they are also moulding and shaping you into a midwife of the future. Each midwife works in a slightly different way, and as a student you have the unique opportunity to soak up all these styles and create your own from the best of each. I know for a fact that I still carry out my postnatal checks in exactly the same way as my first community mentor.
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| Learn from them you will |
It is also important to consider what it must be like for the midwife to be followed around by the questioning and scared novice you will undoubtedly be as a first year. And still as a third year, come to think about it. Everything that you do, they are accountable and responsible for. That is a lot of trust for them to have in someone they have only just met. Perhaps they should be more scared of the students than the students are of them!
As I am nearing graduation, I have been thinking a lot about the sort of mentor I will be. I hope I am half as good as the mentors I have had throughout my training. See you next week.
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