Mentor, Coach, Teacher, Role Model: What’s in a name?

In its new standards for education and training, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) states students should be ‘empowered and provided with the learning opportunities they need to achieve the desired proficiencies and programme outcomes’ (2018a:5). This concept of empowerment, with students as active, rather than passive learners, will be supported by the introduction of Practice Assessors and Supervisors, providing individualised support according to the student’s proficiency and confidence. The Mentor, traditionally perceived as a ‘teacher’ being replaced by the Practice Assessor and Supervisor as ‘role models’ and ‘coaches’.

A previous article in this series (Power and Jewell, 2018) looked at the introduction of a coaching model of student support in practice. This article will discuss third year student midwife Alice Wilson’s experiences of her final labour ward placement and her reflections on her mentor’s approach to student support using the coaching model.