Abstract:
Nursing education professionals face myriad challenges in the 21st century in their
effort to prepare student nurses to serve in a complex healthcare environment. Amidst
the Covid 19 outbreak, it is unclear how clinical nurse mentors will guide the student
nurses in low resource settings. This study explores the challenges facing sustainable
clinical mentorship among nurse mentors in selected county hospitals in Kenya. A
qualitative approach was used with a purposive sample of 20 nurses. Data was collected
through key informant interviews and later analyzed thematically.
The three stages of mentorship (initiation, working and termination) was not well
understood. The mentor-mentee relationship was not cordial and friendly. Training of
mentors was not adequate due to lack of infrastructure and staff turnover. There was no
harmonized working relationship and communication between the training institutions
and the hospitals hence clinical teaching and assessments were not adequately
coordinated. Large numbers of student nurses in the clinical areas lacked clear
guidelines on the sustainability of clinical mentorship amidst the Covid 19 outbreak.
Mentors should be equipped with core competencies and necessary resources including
but not limited to well-equipped skills labortories, well updated libraries with training
manuals and modules in the hospitals as well as resource centers. Training of more
mentors is necessary to sustain mentorship amidst the Covid 19 pandemic.
