Literature Review Report Assignment Sample

Literature Review Report Assignment 

Introduction - Background Literature

Need an Assignment Helper in the UK? Native Assignment Help is here to support you every step of the way. Our skilled experts specialize in a wide range of subjects and are committed to delivering high-quality assignments that meet the highest academic standards.

This report will involve deep analysis of health practice or nursing education which is important for enhancing the experiences of undergraduate nursing students. Foster et al. (2015) reflected that some crucial challenges are being faced by the pre-registered adult nurses while pursuing hospital-based practices. Also, mentorship has been viewed as an important aspect that could positively affect the growth and learning of pre-registered adult nurses. In the words of Thomson et al. (2017) mentorship could greatly help the registered nurses to develop reliable knowledge and necessary skills for executing hospital-based practices. Good qualities could be developed and professional development can be ensured of all the practicing nurses at the hospitals. It is important to explore and evaluate the experiences of pre-registered adult nursing students on mentorship during their placements in the UK hospitals. Won & Choi (2017) claimed that nursing students could be provided with finest quality clinical learning so that they could provide better healthcare services to the patients being admitted in the hospitals. All the bad and good clinical learning experiences of nursing students could be evaluated and the recommendations to improve mentorship could be further processed, suitably and appropriately. The scope of clinical learning has been expanded because the mentors make the nursing students learn about using new technologies or medicines to fight against Covid-19. The nursing students have also been placed in hospitals for managing Covid-19 patients and helping the senior doctors to treat them.

Aim and objectives

Aim

The aim of this research study is to examine the positive and negative experiences of pre-registered adult nurses while receiving mentorship during placements in the UK hospitals.

Objectives

• To explore the challenges faced by nursing students in clinical settings
• To evaluate positive or negative experiences caused by mentorship on nursing students
• To explore the opportunities that could be grabbed by nursing students

Research question

What kinds of experiences are faced by pre-registered nursing students on mentorship during their placements in the UK hospitals?

Ethics

The following ethical considerations have been taken into account during the research:

• Autonomy: The consent of all the registered nursing students or other individuals have got received.
• Beneficence: Some suggestions given by the mentors were considered as they were proven to be the good examples for improving the clinical training of nursing students.
• Justice: It has been ensured that all the actions being taken by the mentors lie within best interest.
• Confidentiality: It was ensured that important guidelines must get fulfilled which are being set by the Nursing and Midwifery Council.
• Integrity: Research has been undertaken with greater transparency and honesty to eliminate biasness.
• Rights of participants: All the participants were informed about their rights such as denying answering any question they find irrelevant.
• Non-maleficence: It has been ensured that no-harm should be caused to any of the participant.

Methods

For the purpose of collecting reliable data, some peer-reviewed articles have been identified and selected that have been published in the last five years. Such articles have got selected for knowing the positive and negative impacts of mentorship on the clinical learning of nursing students during their placements in the hospitals. Secondary research has been undertaken for conducting a critical literature review for demonstrating the importance of mentorship. Apart from reviewing journal articles, some other published reports and Wikipedia were also considered for the purpose of collecting reliable information. The data has been collected as well as analyzed with the help of using Meta-analysis which is a statistical analysis tool that combines the results of multiple scientific studies. To address the research questions, multiple studies have been evaluated and combined to answer the questions in an integrated manner.

The following procedure has been adopted for implementing favourable research methods to ensure suitable data collection and analysis:

• The secondary data for executing the extensive literature review was collected through online surveys and by using a Boolean search method which involved mainly to keywords i.e. WITH and OR for clearly demonstrating the experiences of nursing students.
• A useful tool of Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) has been applied for reading and evaluating different research studies and demonstrating their significant strengths as well as the weaknesses.
• Primary research journal articles have been reviewed and main research findings have got narrowed down in the context of elaborating experiences of nursing students.

The focus has been ensured on using some relevant materials such as the selection of peer-reviewed articles and the collection of high-quality information from the researched results of experts. These materials have helped in choosing valid journals and gaining reliable data without any kind of biasness. Another tool of CAARP was used for considering only reliable sources of information. Based on CAARP method, those articles have got selected which were published currently, the information contained in the articles were authentic, data contained in those articles was reliable ad each of them contained the main purpose of demonstrating experiences possessed by nursing students (Foster et al., 2015).

Another effective research model has been applied i.e. Saunders’ onion model which has helped in conducting systematic research analysis. A deductive research philosophy was used to make logical and meaningful decisions regarding mentorship to embrace clinical learning among nursing students. Along with this, a descriptive research design has been adopted to demonstrate the research results in a detailed and descriptive manner by focusing on some recent facts and figures involving the data and impact of Covid-19 on the learning practice or placement of nursing students.

The secondary data was collected through online surveys and to analyze the data some graphs were used so that better understanding could be ensured to all the readers. Hence, appropriate methods of research were used for attaining the research aim, objectives and investigating the developed research questions. The chosen methods have supported the critical evaluation of research and multiple views of different authors were appraised in the context of the research question.

Results

After evaluating the collected data, it has been founded that five emerged themes influenced the experiences of nursing students on mentorship including independent, belongingness, anticipatory anxiety, support and feedback. Rohatinsky et al. (2017) demonstrated that those nursing students who had positive experiences of mentorship were exposed to get placed and work within a good and positive learning environment. Also, they felt greater support from their mentors as they not only received favourable opportunities related to practicing good management skills but also felt a sense of belongingness while working within the nursing teams after receiving regular feedbacks. It has been further investigated by Andersen & Watkins (2018) that mentors were able to contribute to good and quality placements of nursing students in the UK hospitals by providing them with greater confidence and developing strong relationships with them.

A PRISMA flowchart has been developed and shown as below for reflecting the findings or results:

Figure: PRISMA flowchart

Source: By Author, 2021

Discussion

While exploring the findings of this research, it has been discussed that value of mentorship is high for prequalifying nursing students and help them practice their learning at their placement areas. Despite greater complexities and rising cases of Covid-19, mentorship ensures greater commitment for providing nursing students with high quality mentoring and consistency that could meet their nursing needs. According to Tuomikoski et al. (2018) various positive and productive experiences have been reported by the nursing students by having allocated mentors who enable them to work on regular basis and provide learning opportunities. In addition to this, Vinales (2015) reflected that relationship between mentors and nursing students contribute to the connectedness within the placement clinical area. While examining different experiences of nursing students, it has been further examined that supportive relationships with mentors enhance their sense of belongingness in the hospitals and enable them to get accepted as a nursing staff members. Most of the students have also commented that without connectedness they gain from their mentors, they do not even feel that they are working within the clinical teams.

Cornine (2020) focused on the importance of extended or sufficient period for which the nursing students should work at their placement area because the insufficient time could adversely impact their learning objectives as well as their experiences towards mentorship. The findings have further evaluated that most of the mentors were aware about their roles in ensuring the development of clinical skills or experiences among nursing students. It has been founded by Lombardo et al. (2017) that in various hospitals, the nursing students were struggling due to high workload as there as the shortage of staff members and demand for placement was high. Also, due to the rising cases of Covid-19, the nursing students were facing lack of time to carry such burden and perform the assigned tasks or responsibilities. All such unfavourable constraints have been restricting all the mentors to take regular updates from the students about their clinical learning and some of them were also failing to attain the professional development needs. After examining different views and opinions of different researchers, the importance of mentors’ roles has been investigated in terms of enhancing the clinical learning experiences of various students. Navarra et al. (2018) researched that through favourable mentorship, the nursing students are able to work with greater enthusiasm and they tend to feel more confident and become competent nursing practitioners. Therefore, the positive experiences of all the nurses have developed an inherent goodwill of mentors in the UK.

To provide greater support to the nursing students, mentors need support from the hospitals within which they are working in such as organizing training programs for nursing students and developing strong partnerships with other international hospitals so that necessary resources can be received, when find essential. In the words of Nowell et al. (2017) practicing mentorship not only helps in the development of nursing students but also the mentors as majority of them feel that while providing the clinical education and learning to the students, their clinical skills and knowledge also get improved and they tend to get better. The positive clinical learning experiences among nursing students can also help in increasing self esteem and self efficacy with supportive role model of mentorship. During the placement in the UK hospitals, nursing students are able to develop clinical skills and get proper assistance as the registered nurses in the UK hospitals. Helminen et al. (2017) demonstrated that mentorship provide mutual benefits to both mentors and nursing students while practicing clinical knowledge. The nursing students have further experienced that their professional development gets enhanced after working with mentors and completing their pre-registration education. The students have learned to eliminate their bad clinical habits while pursuing the clinical practices. Additionally, it was founded that the future career choices of nursing students get affected by their placements in the hospitals (Muleya et al., 2015).

Various studies have confirmed that mentorship remains integral in the nursing practice and to the experiences of nursing students. Also, the mentorship significantly influences the quality of nursing students’ placements, their clinical learning and education and greater sense of connectedness. Oikarainen et al. (2018) further reported that the relationship between nursing students and mentors is fundamental in nature and possess high quality to the process of mentoring. The nursing students feel that their personal characteristics and professional orientation get embraced with respect to the greater effectiveness of mentorship received by the students. When on one hand, some students perceived positive experiences during their mentorship process at the placement areas; on the other hand, most of the students also felt negative experiences as some of their issues have got unsolved related to their prequalification as registered nurses and lack of support from their mentors. In consideration to these issues, Vandal et al. (2018) recommended that an effective and appropriate system of mentorship should be provided so that the pre registered nursing students could feel encouraged to secure their future by receiving nursing education. The students who had perceived negative experiences have demonstrated the strong need for the continuous implementation of national standards being established by the regulatory nursing bodies that clarify the crucial roles and responsibilities of mentors.

It has been suggested by Kramer et al. (2018) that a standard balance must be ensured the number of learners and mentors so that the clinical experiences and education could be provided to all the students without any kind of constraints and without hampering their quality of placement. Along with this, the students must be provided with the standard amount of work because excess of workload and increasing burden could affect their overall learning and placement experiences. Many nursing students have demonstrated negativity during their clinical learning journey because student assessment documentation has got added to their workload and non-user friendly relations get exhibit by working for repetitive tasks lengthy roles. These views have been supported by mentors as they feel that sometimes filling up the paperwork increases the working hours for nursing students due to which they get discouraged and feel low. Donley & Norman (2021) identified that the nursing students’ absenteeism increases and their professional development in the nursing field gets stopped because of lack of learning and ineffective development of skills. From the conducted analysis and explored research findings, maximum experiences of nursing students were positive as they are able to bridge up the gap between theoretical education and practice of clinical skills and knowledge in the UK hospitals. In this context, Rylance et al. (2017) claimed that mentors enable the nursing students to practically apply the learned theories and models of nursing while doing their nursing tasks at the locations where they are placed. The practical learning which is being embraced by the mentors reflects that the students have gained positive experienced during their placement journey.

According to the research conducted by Peltz & Raymond (2016) nursing students must be professionally mentored in their placement for gaining deep knowledge in the clinical settings. The professional mentors not only perform the role of embracing professional learning and growth among students but also improve their clinical mentoring skills so that they could offer high quality clinical services to the hospitals where they got placed. Almost all the nursing students who possessed positive experiences have focused on the greatest advantage i.e. embraced proficiency as they receive high support from their mentors along with managed supervision. In accordance to the perspectives of Lin et al. (2018) different countries follow different concepts of mentoring and clinical approaches due to which the final working or application by nursing students could get impacted adversely. For example, the students might learn through different mentoring concepts in the UK hospitals and they might struggle in making their professional career in the nursing field in other countries because of different methods and approaches being followed in the international hospitals.

According to the opinions of Douglas et al. (2016) the mentors should implement suitable recommendations, if required, based on the positive or negative experiences of nursing students regarding the development of clinical skills or knowledge. The nurses should also be given with some structured time so that they could discuss for their experiences and develop critical skills of reflection among them. The concept of feedback and assessment in the mentorship process helps the students to build up greater confidence in facing complex challenges in the nursing field during their placement. Raymond & Sheppard (2017) reported that most of the students desire to have informal interaction with their mentors while receiving feedbacks about their performances during their placement so that they could understand their mistakes and areas of improvement, suitably and appropriately. Another crucial need has been determined i.e. letting the nursing students to work in teams for encouraging their participation in team decision-making and enabling them to share their knowledge for solving out the complex problems. Tiew et al. (2017) further investigated the importance of team working that could allow the students towards managing challenges in an integrated manner. When the students work individually they could get stuck in the phase of isolation due to stress and high workload, but the team work could help them to come out of huge stress and manage their frustration level.

Conclusions/recommendations

It can be concluded that different nursing students possess different experiences and have different lookouts for mentorship during their placements in clinical wards. Some of them have got positively influenced by their mentors while others have got negatively influenced, depending upon the situations, skills and knowledge of the mentors. For conducting the research, secondary data was collected by reviewing different journal articles and conducting in-depth literature review to demonstrate critical arguments between the authors. Some following recommendations should be considered for conducting future research:

• Primary research should be conducted for collecting fresh and reliable data and expanding the scope of the research.
• Any effective research model should be applied such as Saunders’ onion research model to use suitable methodologies and demonstrate complete understanding.
• Interviews and survey strategies should be used for having direct interactions with pre registered nursing students and knowing about their experiences about mentorship.
• A mixed methodology should be used for supporting the collection of qualitative and quantitative data or information.

Cornine, A. (2020). Reducing nursing student anxiety in the clinical setting: An integrative review. Nursing education perspectives, 41(4), 229-234.

Donley, C., & Norman, K. (2021). Nursing student perspectives on a quality learning environment in general practice. Primary Health Care, 31(2).

Douglas, V., Garrity, J., Shepherd, K., & Brown, L. (2016). Nurses’ perceptions and experiences of mentoring. Nursing Management, 23(1).

Erwin, E. J., Brotherson, M. J., Summers, J. A. (2011). Understanding qualitative metasynthesis. Journal of Early Intervention, 33, 186–200. Retrieved from http://doi.org/10.1177/1053815111425493

Foster, H., Ooms, A., & Marks-Maran, D. (2015). Nursing students' expectations and experiences of mentorship. Nurse Education Today, 35(1), 18-24.

Foster, H., Ooms, A., & Marks-Maran, D. (2015). Nursing students' expectations and experiences of mentorship. Nurse Education Today, 35(1), 18-24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2014.04.019

Helminen, K., Johnson, M., Isoaho, H., Turunen, H., & Tossavainen, K. (2017). Final assessment of nursing students in clinical practice: Perspectives of nursing teachers, students and mentors. Journal of clinical nursing, 26(23-24), 4795-4803.

Jack, K., Hamshire, C., Harris, W. E., Langan, M., Barrett, N., &Wibberley, C. (2018;2017;). “My mentor didn't speak to me for the first four weeks”: Perceived unfairness experienced by nursing students in clinical practice settings. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 27(5-6), 929-938. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.14015

Jervis, A., &Tilki, M. (2011). Why are nurse mentors failing to student nurses who do not meet clinical performance standards? British Journal of Nursing (Mark Allen Publishing), 20(9), 582-587. https://doi.org/10.12968/bjon.2011.20.9.582

Jokelainen, M., Turunen, H., Tossavainen, K., Jamookeeah, D., & Coco, K. (2011). A systematic review of mentoring nursing students in clinical placements. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 20(19?20), 2854-2867. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2702.2010.03571.x

Kramer, D., Hillman, S. M., & Zavala, M. (2018). Developing a culture of caring and support through a peer mentorship program. Journal of Nursing Education, 57(7), 430-435.

Lee, N. P. M., & Chiang, V. C. L. (2021;2020;). The mentorship experience of students and nurses in pre?registration nursing education: A thematic synthesis of qualitative studies. Nursing & Health Sciences, 23(1), 69-86. https://doi.org/10.1111/nhs.12794

Lin, J., Chew, Y. R., Toh, Y. P., & Krishna, L. K. R. (2018). Mentoring in nursing: an integrative review of commentaries, editorials, and perspectives papers. Nurse educator, 43(1), E1-E5.

Lombardo, C., Wong, C., Sanzone, L., Filion, F., & Tsimicalis, A. (2017). Exploring mentees' perceptions of an undergraduate nurse peer mentorship program. Journal of Nursing Education, 56(4), 227-230.

Muleya, C. , Marshall, J. and Ashwin, C. (2015) Nursing and Midwifery Students’ Perception and Experiences of Mentorship: A Systematic Review. Open Journal of Nursing, 5, 571-586. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ojn.2015.56061.

Myall, M., Levett?Jones, T., &Lathlean, J. (2008). Mentorship in contemporary practice: The experiences of nursing students and practice mentors. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 17(14), 1834-1842. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2702.2007.02233.x

Navarra, A. M., Stimpfel, A. W., Rodriguez, K., Lim, F., Nelson, N., & Slater, L. Z. (2018). Beliefs and perceptions of mentorship among nursing faculty and traditional and accelerated undergraduate nursing students. Nurse education today, 61, 20-24.

NMC (2008) Standards to Support Learning and Assessment in Practice: NMC Standards for Mentors, Practice Teachers and Teachers. Nursing and Midwifery Council, London.

Nowell, L., Norris, J. M., Mrklas, K., & White, D. E. (2017). A literature review of mentorship programs in academic nursing. Journal of Professional Nursing, 33(5), 334-344.

Oikarainen, A., Mikkonen, K., Tuomikoski, A. M., Elo, S., Pitkänen, S., Ruotsalainen, H., & Kääriäinen, M. (2018). Mentors' competence in mentoring culturally and linguistically diverse nursing students during clinical placement. Journal of advanced nursing, 74(1), 148-159.

Peltz, C. M., & Raymond, D. M. (2016). Effects of associate degree nursing students' characteristics on perceptions and experiences of mentoring. Journal of Nursing Education, 55(5), 258-265.

Raymond, J. M., & Sheppard, K. (2017). Effects of peer mentoring on nursing students’ perceived stress, sense of belonging, self-efficacy and loneliness. Journal of nursing Education and Practice, 8(1), 16.

Rohatinsky, N., Harding, K., & Carriere, T. (2017). Nursing student peer mentorship: A review of the literature. Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning, 25(1), 61-77.

Rylance, R., Barrett, J., Sixsmith, P., & Ward, D. (2017). Student nurse mentoring: an evaluative study of the mentor's perspective. British Journal of Nursing, 26(7), 405-409.

Thomson, R., Docherty, A., & Duffy, R. (2017). Nursing students' experiences of mentorship in their final placement. British Journal of Nursing, 26(9), 514-521.

Thomson, R., Docherty, A., & Duffy, R. (2017). Nursing students' experiences of mentorship in their final placement. British Journal of Nursing (Mark Allen Publishing), 26(9), 514-521. https://doi.org/10.12968/bjon.2017.26.9.514

Tiew, L. H., Koh, C. S., Creedy, D. K., & Tam, W. S. W. (2017). Graduate nurses' evaluation of mentorship: Development of a new tool. Nurse education today, 54, 77-82.

Tuomikoski, A. M., Ruotsalainen, H., Mikkonen, K., Miettunen, J., & Kääriäinen, M. (2018). The competence of nurse mentors in mentoring students in clinical practice–A cross-sectional study. Nurse education today, 71, 78-83.

Vandal, N., Leung, K., Sanzone, L., Filion, F., Tsimicalis, A., & Lang, A. (2018). Exploring the student peer mentor's experience in a nursing peer mentorship program. Journal of Nursing Education, 57(7), 422-425.

Vinales, J. J. (2015). Mentorship part 1: the role in the learning environment. British Journal of Nursing, 24(1), 50-53.

Won, M. R., & Choi, Y. J. (2017). Undergraduate nursing student mentors' experiences of peer mentoring in Korea: A qualitative analysis. Nurse education today, 51, 8-14.

 Appendices

Appendix 1: Preparing your keywords

Research topic: What are the experiences of pre-registered adult nursing students on mentorship in the hospital practice-based placement in the United Kingdom?

Appendix 2: Search log template