University nursing department concerned that capping could drastically reduce mentor availability

● MUMN does not believe this will be the case

The Department of Nursing at the University of Malta is concerned with the capping of mentors as per an MUMN agreement, and worried that it might drastically reduce mentor availability. The MUMN however, does not believe this will be the case.

Earlier this month, the MUMN announced that during a meeting held at the Permanent Secretary’s office (Education), it was agreed that the Nurses & Midwives will now be entitled to receive a structured Mentorship Allowance when formally mentoring students from the University of Malta and Northumbria University.

Roberta Sammut, Head of the Department of Nursing, said the MUMN stated that an agreement had been reached for each mentor not to take on more than four students per calendar year.

“Over the past 10 years, there was no capping of the number of students each mentor could take over a period of one year. This capping consequently creates concern as it will drastically reduce mentor availability. For the system to function effectively and accommodate both educational institutions, there should be no capping beyond the limit of two students per mentor at any one particular point in time,” she said.

The Department said it believes that the €250 per student allowance, as agreed by MUMN and government, is “sufficient and is in line with that awarded to other professionals. In line with our proposed views, remuneration should be calculated based on the number of students being mentored.”

Asked whether it had been consulted on the mentors agreement, the department said it had been, initially, “but the final statement issued by MUMN indicates that the recommendations forwarded by the Department have not been taken on board. The recommendation made by the Department of Nursing in relation to the capping (outlined above) and the system for managing mentors have not been considered.

“Since its introduction, the mentoring programme was always managed by the Department of Nursing at the UM including recruitment and training of nurses to act as mentors. The Department of Nursing believes that it should continue to manage such mentoring process to ensure that students benefit from a high quality delivery, given that such practical work constitutes 50% of the academic programme.”

The department insisted that it “cannot be divested from the right to oversee aspects which may affect the quality of its programme of studies.”

The department said it has been training mentors since 2004. This programme is offered on a yearly basis and around 40 mentors have been trained every year over the past 11 years.

“It is our intent to continue to train our mentors and to retain the right to select mentors in line with the university’s quality assurance mechanisms.”

Asked whether there is a mentor shortage, the Nursing Department said that whilst over the years they have professionally developed many mentors, the department of nursing at the University also loses several mentors as some go out on parental leave; some request to stop temporarily when they move to a new clinical setting or are engaged in bachelors or masters programmes; and many get promoted to either deputy or charge nurse positions, or specialist positions.

“We wish for the mentors to be the staff nurses although we have some charge nurses who remain excellent mentors even though they manage busy wards. This means that active recruitment of new mentors is an ongoing process to ensure that we do not encounter shortages. In fact there are shortages of mentors in specific clinical areas. The reasons for these localized shortages are multifactorial and include the particular clinical environment as well as motivational issues.”

The department said it was not yet in a position to say whether the new programme at MCAST has resulted in a dip in the number of available mentors. When asked why the MUMN opted to cap the number of students to four per year, a representative for the nurses’ union said that this guarantees certain professionalism.

“We wanted every nurse to have only one student at any one time, so that one can receive proper mentorship.”

Told that the concern is that this system might not see enough mentors for the students, the representative did not believe this would be the case.

“If something happens there could be cases where there would be two students per mentor, but where possible one for better individual attention.

“We will give it a try and if we see something not working, we will meet again and review the situation,” he said.

Specifically asked why they opted to limit the total number of students per mentor per year to four, the representative said that they did not want to risk the possibility of any mentors taking on many students per year just for the money (given the new allowance), not providing the best possible mentorship.

“This way we can ensure that the students are receiving the best possible mentorship.”

Recently, a new nursing course was launched in Malta, where MCAST announced that from last October it began offering a new degree course in nursing studies entitled ‘Northumbria University Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Nursing Studies.’ Former Vitals Global Healthcare CEO Armin Ernst had previously said that, “Vitals will fund the enterprise for three years to a tune of €2 million.”

The MUMN representative said: “Northumbria University will use a system whereby they allocate a student to a nurse during their shift, that way once they graduate they would have already experienced the shift work of a nurse.

“Such shift work can occur at Mater Dei Hospital, Mount Carmel Hospital etc. Today students work from Monday to Friday, not knowing what weekend or night work is, and this results in these students – once they graduate – not wanting to work nights and seeing weekend work from a negative aspect as they are not used to the system.

“It is important to give them a taste as to what it would be like when they become a nurse, as it seems there is one world for when one is a student, and another for when one becomes a nurse.”

He stressed the importance of student nurses experiencing the actual life of a nurse, and avoid the shock factor.

Questions have been sent to the Health Ministry, asking who will be paying the allowance for mentors mentoring students undertaking the Northumbria course at MCAST.