Using mentoring circles to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nursing students: Guidelines for sharing and learning (original) (raw)
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Contemporary Nurse, 2005
Indigenous health can be achieved by increasing the participetion if Indigenous people in the health prcifessions. Currently in Australia the participation by Indipenous people in the health projessions is low and the Indigenous people cifAustralia continue to have poor health outcomes. This qualitative study utilised interviews with 22 Indigenous students enrolled in undergraduate nursing degrees across Australia, to explore the challenges they Jaced and uncover the strateaies they hadJound he!P.Ju! to their proaress in the course. Thefindinas indicate that students are cbollenped byfinancia! hardship, steifJ inscnsith'ity to cultural issues, discrimination, Jack ifIndigenous mentors, poor study skills, Jack if adequate educational preparation, lack if resources, and ongoingJamitv commitments. Stroteoics identified as particularly helpful to tenure within the course include specific l ndiqcnous support units, adequate financial support, interested academics, Aboriginal Tertiary~ssist-ance Scheme (ATAS) tutors, support IromJamily andfriends, and suppott irom other students.
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 2013
Effective partnerships between Aboriginal Health Workers and non-Aboriginal health professionals are essential to achieve Aboriginal health outcomes. This study aimed to evaluate a mentoring workforce development strategy for Aboriginal Health Workers and non-Aboriginal allied health professionals. Thirty-four Aboriginal Health Workers and non-Aboriginal health professionals were recruited to the mentoring program where they were paired and established a learning relationship for approximately six months. A qualitative evaluation with thirty of the participants was undertaken involving in-depth interviews at the completion of the program. A total of 18 mentoring partnerships were formed across Victoria. The data revealed three key themes in relation to the evaluation of the program: (1) The mentoring program facilitated two-way learning, (2) The Aboriginal Health Workers and non-Aboriginal health professional participants reported being able to meet their identified learning needs through the partnership, (3) The capacity to improve practice was facilitated through readiness to learn and change practice and personal attributes of the participants, as well as organisation and management support. Peer mentoring between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal health workforce was found to be a powerful mechanism to promote two-way learning that has the capacity to meet learning needs and promote practice improvement. Peer mentoring may be part of a multi-strategy approach to the development of the Aboriginal health workforce.
Nurse Education in Practice, 2020
Research has demonstrated that students who have immersive experiences in Indigenous settings emerge with a greater understanding of their own values and attitudes and increased appreciation for Indigenous Peoples and culture. Up to 80% of Indigenous people in Australia live in urban settings, yet research on nursing students' placements in urban Indigenous organisations is scarce. This manuscript presents qualitative findings from the analysis of eight third year nursing student's reflective essays, written iteratively across a three-week placement in urban Aboriginal organisations. Reflective journaling was employed as a pedagogical method. All the students reported experiencing profound personal and professional growth. Thematic analysis resulted in three themes 'Working with experience and uncertainty', 'Developing acceptance and understanding' and Becoming allies and advocates'. From the findings, it is evident that despite the logistical issues of a small Indigenous population and a vast nursing cohort, it is important to ensure that all nursing students have opportunities to engage authentically with Indigenous people, in places and spaces of Indigenous authority, and opportunities to reflect on their learnings in the context of their previous understandings.
In this article, we highlighted the stories of university student mentors who are involved in the Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience (AIME). The AIME program works with young Indigenous school students, at primary and secondary school levels, to encourage continued participation in education and to consider university as a viable life goal. The AIME program is explored from the perspective of the university students who are selected to mentor young Australian Indigenous school students. Adopting a narrative inquiry approach, the article presents richly descriptive insight into the motivations of these mentors and highlights how this experience has impacted upon them. While the research presented focuses on narratives of mentors, the data indicate that the AIME program employs an innovative approach to mentoring that enhances cultural understanding for mentors.
Reinforcement of an undergraduate peer-group clinical mentoring programme in nursing
North-West University (South-Africa), 2020
During the researcher’s undergraduate education and tenure as a community service nurse, it was experienced that the undergraduate peer-group clinical mentoring programme exists. It was however noted that mentoring was ineffective, as is evident in the lack of a formal supportive programme as well as non-committed senior students and academic staff members. Common challenges that are evident to the undergraduate peer-group clinical mentoring programme are lack of nursing educators’ support and management, poor planna ing and implementation of this programme among undergraduate nursing students. Aim: Therefore the aim of this research was to reinforce an undergraduate peer-group clinical mentoring programme from experiences of undergraduate nursing students in a specific Nursing Education Institution (NEI) in North-West Province. Methodology: A Retrospective Reflective Case Study was employed to achieve the aim and objectives of this research. Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle (1988) was employed to ground this research with a theoretical assumption. The World Café concurrently with seven principles was used to collect data from undergraduate peer mentees. More importantly, Four Levels of Analysis as drawn from the Indigenous Health Research Framework as described by Pienaar (2017) were used to bring meaning to the collected data. Findings: Based on the findings of this research, a preliminary conceptual framework emerged for the reinforcement of the undergraduate peer-group clinical mentoring programme. This emerged from four themes which are description of the under-graduate peer-group clinical mentoring programme, significance of the under-graduate peer-group clinical mentoring programme, recommendations to reinforce the under-graduate peer-group clinical mentoring programme and lastly reinforcement techniques, methods and practice for the under-graduate peer-group clinical mentoring programme.Master
Contemporary Nurse, 2018
Background: Achieving increased participation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia's health workforce, particularly nursing, is federal government policy imperative. However, the uptake of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students into nursing has stalled and their attrition from tertiary nursing courses is considerably higher than for other students. Aim: To alert the profession to issues impacting enrolled nursing education for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. Design: Discussion paper. Results: Studies of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students mainly focus on tertiary education for registered nurses whereas vocational education and training (VET) for enrolled nurses is usually overlooked. It is generally assumed that the issues influencing the recruitment, attrition, and retention of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in higher education universities and other institutions similarly impact enrolled nursing students in the VET sector. Conclusion: Research that contributes robust evidence-based knowledge specifically on strategies addressing issues in enrolled nursing education for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and their employment uptake is required.
Diversity in Higher Education, 2013
Purpose: Generally, theory and research investigating the effectiveness of mentoring has offered little resounding evidence to attest to mentoring programmes being a strategic initiative that make a real difference in reducing the educational inequities many minority students endure. In contrast to this existing research base, the Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience (AIME) has often been cited as one of the most successful mentoring initiatives within Australia. It is the purpose of this chapter to examine how AIME may impact on the educational aspirations and school self-concept of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. Methodology: A series of multi-group analyses were centred around Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and structural equation modelling techniques that sought not only to explore the psychometric validity of the measures utilized within this study, but also to identify how the measures may be related after accounting for background variables (e.g. gender, parental education). Findings: The results found that the measures utilized held strong psychometric properties allowing an increased level of confidence in the measures used and the conclusion that may be drawn from their use in analyses. Overall, the results suggested that AIME is an effective tool for increasing not only the educational aspirations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students but also their levels (and utility) of School Self-concept and School Enjoyment. Implications: The implications suggest that not only is AIME an essential tool for closing the educational gap between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Aboriginal students, but also our understanding of mentoring must be extended well beyond simplistic notions of role-modelling.
Education as Change
This article explores the unique mentoring model that the Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience (AIME) has established to assist Australian Indigenous young people succeed educationally. AIME can be described as a structured educational mentoring program, which recruits university students to mentor Indigenous high school students. The success of the program is unequivocal, with the AIME Indigenous mentees completing high school and the transition to further education and employment at higher rates than their non-AIME Indigenous counterparts. This article reports on a study that sought to deeply explore the particular approach to mentoring that AIME adopts. The study drew upon interviews, observations and surveys with AIME staff, mentees and mentors and the focus in this article is on the surveys completed by the university mentors involved in the program. Overall, there seems to be a discernable mutual reciprocity inherent in the learning outcomes of this mentoring program; th...