Since its inception in 2004, the mentoring project has had a powerful impact on Flinders University undergraduate students’ interest in research, producing significant increases in Honours and PhD enrolments and a dramatic rise in conference presentations and co-authored publications.
In 2004, the mentoring project began as an innovative teaching and learning pathway in the final semester of the Bachelor of Nursing program. Since then the project has been further developed by Dr Lindy King and a team of other academics from the School.
In its sixth year, the mentoring project now exists as a separate final-semester topic available to Bachelor of Nursing and Bachelor of Midwifery students who hold an overall distinction average grade or higher in their studies and have an interest in research.
Undergraduate nursing and midwifery students are renowned for questioning the relevance of research to practice, but developing skills for publication and conference presentation is often not seen as a priority. The mentoring project aims to stimulate students’ interest in publishing, presenting and researching in clinical fields of their interest. The students are alerted to the University's academic pathways available to them and to their own potential contribution through future research to clinical practice improvement and evidence-based health care.
Each student is allocated an academic and a clinical mentor, interested in research, scholarship and practice improvement, for the semester. Assessment in the mentoring project requires students, under the guidance of their mentors, to develop a 5000-word literature review for potential publication in a peer-reviewed journal and a professional poster about their research issue for display in practice settings and/or for conference presentations.
Awards
Dr King and the project management team have received the following awards, indicating national and international recognition of the success of this project:
- 2007 The Carrick Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education: citation for Outstanding Sustained Contribution to Student Learning
- 2007 Flinders University: Vice-Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching
- 2004 Flinders University: Vice-Chancellor's Teaching & Learning Innovation grant.
Publications about the mentoring project
King, L, Neill, J & Taylor, K 2007, ‘Improving research competence and confidence in undergraduate students through a mentoring project', published in the peer-reviewed research section, HERDSA International Conference proceedings, Adelaide, South Australia, July.
Jones, J, Neill, J, King, L, Taylor, K & Howles, A 2004, 'Mentoring project—unlocking future potential: mentoring nursing students through the process of transforming best evidence into best clinical practice', presentation for Nurse Education Tomorrow, 15th Annual International Participative Conference in Education in Health Care, Durham, United Kingdom, September.
Jones, J, Neill, J, King, L, Taylor, K & Howles, A 2004, 'A pilot model for mentoring undergraduate nursing students through the process of locating best evidence and improving clinical practice', Nursing Leadership, Policy and Politics, RCNA Conference, Alice Springs, NT, July.
Contact details
Dr Lindy King
Phone: +61 8 8201 3344 / (08) 8201 3344
Email: lindy.king@flinders.edu.au
Partners
The mentoring project management team are working with the University of Technology Sydney, the University of Southampton and the Australian Catholic University as they implement the mentoring project into their undergraduate programs.
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Robyn Gallagher Associate Professor Chronic and Complex Care, Coordinator Honours Research Programs, Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Health, University of Technology, Sydney Phone: 61 2 9514 4833 Email: Robyn.Gallagher@uts.edu.au | Brian J Webster | Dr Judy Gonda |
