SIGN OFF MENTORS

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) Standards to Support Learning and Assessment in Practice (2006) introduced the requirement that pre-registration students, in their final supervised practice placement, must be assessed by a sign off mentor. The NMC states: ‘a sign-off mentor, who has met additional criteria must make the final assessment of practice confirming to the NMC that the required proficiencies for entry to the register have been achieved’ (NMC 2006 p2). The standards became effective from September 2007 for those undertaking part-to-part and return to practice nursing courses. For pre-registration nursing students it will take effect from June 2010. It is therefore essential that sufficient numbers of mentors are identified and prepared by this date. It should be noted that the NMC are clear that all mentors need to actively participate in developing their practice through continual professional development in order to meet mentor criteria and sign off criteria, thus maintaining high standards of mentorship practice throughout the three year Pre Registration programme. Those mentors meeting the additional criteria will be registered on the Trust’s mentorship database, and will require an annual update and triennial review to remain active in their role. The NMC stated that the initial decision regarding who may be considered as a sign-off mentor will be made by placement providers in the first instance. Therefore, in order to implement this, the Gwent clinical teachers adapted a self assessment algorithm devised by NHS Education for Scotland (2007) which is available on the Intranet/internet sites. The first group of sign off mentors are invited to utilise this tool either by line managers or through self nomination.

This requirement has generated a great deal of discussion in the clinical areas. Please add your comments and thoughts here.