Mentors: will they make you or break you?

“Make sure you don’t make any mistakes because if you do it will come back on me” - not the kind of congratulations you expect to hear after three years of hard work and sacrifice but those were the farewell words from my sign off mentor. After five years of qualifying those words remain clear in my mind. Do they define me? No. Do they bother me now? Absolutely not. However, it goes to show just how instrumental mentors actually are in shaping nurses of the future.

With 50% of your nursing degree being placements, we all know how much they can shape not only your degree but you as a person. However, I also believe that mentors can really dictate how a placement will go. The thought of whether your mentor is going to like you is not even something any student should ever have to worry about; and yet that is one of the top concerns. Will my mentor be nice? Will they like me?

My sign off placement; the one that was although meant to be my scariest placement, it was also the one that was meant to uplift me and challenge me in preparation for becoming an official staff nurse, but it was the one that I dreaded the most. I was initially ignored, compared to past students and made to feel inadequate. Had I not been shown so much love and support from the patients and their parents on the ward who had no idea how I was feeling I’m not really sure how I would of continued.

We’ve all been there when someone asks “who’s your mentor?” and they pull a face as though to say “good luck”. I’ve seen a lot of talk amongst the student nursing community regarding mentors and placements, and it’s so frustrating to see that there are still professionals out there who have forgotten what it was like to be “the student”.

My advice to anyone out there struggling with difficult mentors is to always speak up! My university were fantastic and supported me to ensure that I was treated in the way that I deserved. It can be a really difficult thing to do however you are there to learn and to be taught.

Looking back I feel so sorry for twenty year old me, she didn’t deserve that but I’m so proud that she believed in herself and stood up for what she deserved.

To all the students out there remember you’re more than “just a student” and to all fellow nursing professionals don’t be the nurse who people aspire to be NOTHING like.