Blog: Mentoring matters more than ever for nurses

Words: Stuart Tuckwood, national officer for nursing As the NHS battles to reduce waiting lists and meet escalating demands, workplace stresses remain intense for staff. While there has been an increase in the number of nurses and healthcare assistants, domestically and from overseas, this does bring big challenges for teams in terms of the mix of skills. UNISON, Nursing Times and the Florence Nightingale Foundation surveyed over 2,000 nurses for their views on preceptorship (mentoring) programmes. The results are encouraging and suggest big strides have been made in support for newly registered nurses. However, there remain significant obstacles to ensuring all staff can access these high-quality programmes. Our earlier 2022 survey found a broad consensus on the importance of preceptorship, but that too few nurses were getting the right support when they qualified. Survey results There has been significant work trying to improve preceptorship in all parts of the UK since then and the latest survey results suggest this investment has paid dividends. The percentage of newly registered nurses who were offered a preceptorship in their first jobs is now at 93%, up from 83% in 2022. Encouragingly, more than four in ten (45%) were likely to say their preceptorship was excellent, up from just over a fifth (23%) two years ago. Another positive development is the amount of protected time nurses have been given for their preceptorship. In 2022, just under a third (32%) said they were g...
Source: UNISON Health care news - Category: UK Health Authors: Tags: Article Blogs News health nursing Source Type: news