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Working With An Emergency Department For Over Thirteen Years

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Working in an emergency department for over thirteen years, I have had the opportunity to work alongside some wonderful nurses. I have also been fortunate to train some of those nurses. Providing bedside training and working together with the educators to teach the basics of emergency medicine to newer nurses entering the department. In Ottawa, there was a novice nurse program that allowed new graduates or nurse specializing in other areas to enter an intense twelve week training program. During this time they were given classroom time and mentoring time on the unit. After the program was completed they should feel comfortable enough to take on an assignment on their own. Our job was to ensure they felt ready and help with the transition …show more content…

During the second phase I was able to offer guidance to the mentee, I was also able to learn from them. It was an encounter that I was happy to have had the opportunity to been a part of. I have to wonder if the management put some thought behind whom they select for my mentee, it seems with each one I developed a friendship after the program was completed. The mentees were all younger than I was, less experienced with quiet personalities. I probably would have not “fit” well with a loud, overbearing personality in emergency. As explained by Gillespie in Module 3 “Gillespie (2002) notes that ‘fit’ in a relationship is influenced by all that is encompassed by the two individuals that come together in the relationship”.
“A strong mentor is able to encourage the protégé to take on new projects and then stand back and watch them grow, allowing them to “reap the glory” (Faut-Callahan, 2001). This would be phase three of the process and being able to reassign some of the responsibility to the mentee should be happening. I found this difficult, since I like to be in control of my patient load. Over the course of the program I was able to see the growth and confidence of my mentee and felt more comfortable releasing the role to them. This was a learning experience for both of us, taking the appropriate amount of work as to not be overwhelmed but not so little that they felt bored or under stimulated. By allowing the

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