Abstract
This article, the third of an eleven part series, will offer advice and practical tips to new and existing mentors / practice teachers to enable them to develop within their role as a mentor and aid them in developing a portfolio of evidence that meets the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC 2008a) Standards to Support Learning and Assessment in Practice (SSLAP). It will stress the importance of creating a good quality practice placement, furthermore it will examine the essential components that make an effective good quality practice placement all of which directly relate to the fifth domain and outcomes of the Nursing and Midwifery Councils (2008a) SSLAP named ‘Creating an Environment for Learning’. The article essentially presents a number of suggested ways in which this domain can be achieved and how mentors can utilise these methods in order to demonstrate and gather evidence to show they have met NMC (2008a) domain and outcomes for ‘Creating an Environment for Learning’. More importantly a number of learning activities and useful tips will be incorporated to aid prospective and existing mentors / practice teachers to undertake various self assessments in achieving this domain. This will hopefully assist mentors / practice teachers in gathering relevant evidence in order to demonstrate how they have met the aforementioned domain and outcomes as part of the requirement to become or maintain the NMC (2008a) mentor / practice teacher requirements. For more in-depth information on the NMC (2008a) SSLAP and requirements refer to part 1 of the series ‘Developing mentors to support students in practice, Part 1: Standards to Support Learning and Assessment in Practice.