Online Mentor Update

Sign Off Mentors

Students who commenced their training from September 2007 onwards will require a sign off mentor during their final management placement. This role commenced for the first time in April 2010 as these students entered their final semester. The sign off mentor is responsible and accountable for making the final assessment of the students overall proficiency and fitness to practice and they will confirm that the student has successfully achieved all practice requirements.

The sign off mentor will normally be an experience mentor who is on the same part of the register and working in the same field of practice as that which the student is intending to qualify in. The sign off mentor will need to be annotated onto the local mentor database as such after receiving additional preparation and information to enable them to carry out the role. This will involve meeting additional criteria as stated by the NMC (2008).

The sign off mentor should have enough time allocated to review the student's documentation from previous placements as well as providing the mentoring role throughout the final placement and conducting the preliminary, intermediate and final interviews. This will enable the sign off mentor to reach a final decision on the student's suitability to enter the register.

The student is required to spend a minimum of 40% of time in practice supervised by a mentor. The NMC have stated that the sign off mentor must also have the equivalent of an hour of protected time per week per student which can be used to familiarise themselves with the students documentation; meet with the student to set action plans and review them; give constructive feedback and encourage the student to reflect on their learning etc. Further information on the role of the sign off mentor can be found in the Winter 2009 (issue 17) and Spring 2010 (issue 18) Mentors' Newsletters.