Day 10 - Night out at London Brick Lane - The Monsoon Restaurant 10/10

Day 10 - Friday 12.02.2010 (MINE) Student - led Conference

More photos from Erasmus London

Erasmus London - Day 9 (11th February 2010)

The last day of the intensive Erasmus course is tomorrow on the 12th February 2010.
The students have worked hard on their conference presentation. There was a fantastic team working atmosphere and I know the conference tomorrow will be fantastic as many wonderful ideas were shared and will be presented creatively. The Erasmus website also looks fantastic.

The mentor's presentation package is also exciting and I hope everyone likes what we are going to present tomorrow.
Looking forward to the conference tomorrow.

Week 2 : Day 3 - The Duck Tour of London

After all successful group presentations this morning we all went for a tour of London. The Duck tour was fab and the historic vehicle used for the D-day landings in 1944 was very fun to ride in around London and did surprisingly well both on the road and in the river, it is a boat actually. Here are two photos. It was incredibly cold today but very enjoyable afternoon.

Week 2 - Mentor's group work

Mentor's group work in the barn at Hendon. Very productive day we all participated and shared good ideas. Finally after a long day we completed the presentation and will test-run it on Wednesday morning in front of the Erasmus group before the final conference presentation day on Friday 12th Feb 2010..

Day - 5 Assessment of Practice

Erasmus Mentor's Discussion Group:

We looked at the various practice assessment tools used in Malta, Finland and the UK. (Italy did not bring a copy).
We considered what the purpose of assessing students in practice was and why and what we are assessing and looked at our similarities in practice assessments of Erasmus student nurses.

The points discussed along side the practice assessment tools: (not an extensive list)

• to check the student's understanding and level of knowledge
• to see if the connection between theory and practice is established
• to assess the level of their competencies.
• communication skills (the Erasmus students need a crash course in Finish, Swedish and Italian)
  
• team working skills
• theory and practice integration
• minimum standards must be met (if not refer/fail)
  

Day 5 - Asessment of Practice

The students presented a summary of their discussions on anxiety and fears about practice placement assessment . It was interesting to hear that many students were anxious about whether they will pass or fail practice. The Italian students were also anxious about the type of mentor they will be allocated and whether they will get along with the person. The Finish students reported that they are not anxious about passing or failing practice as they are well prepared for placements and also they have a mid-point interview where the mentor informs them of their level of performance indicating if the student needs to improve. The Maltese practice assessment is graded (4 levels ranging from excellent to ''fail'') which is the only country that assesses practice by grading practice assessments. However Middlesex University is also considering introducing grading in practice assessments.

After hard day's work a cultural exchange of food and drinks

Day 4 - Reflect on Mentoring

Notes from the discussion with fellow mentors from Malta, Italy, Finland and the UK

Day 4 - Learning Theories

It was a good session and as many of the fellow mentors agree we do need to revise on the learning theories. It's been a while since I looked the learning theories and today was a good opportunity to do so. Caroline gave us useful handouts and the group discussions were very lively. It was also valuable learning experience working in groups made up of students and mentors.



In my view all the learning theories we looked at (Behaviorist, Cognitive, Social, Humanistic, Experiential and Andragogic) have all been influential in learning and teaching in nursing. These theories are useful in helping us understand how we learn and to to understand the complex process of learning. I do value the experiential theory too, as a mentor I have seen how learning by experience has it's value in nursing and in teaching student nurses in practice.

Day 3 - Visit to the Hunterian Museum — The Royal College of Surgeons of England

The Hunterian Museum is located inside The Royal College of Surgeons of England,
35-43 Lincoln's Inn Fields,
London, WC2A 3PE

This was a really exciting day. I loved the museum and the guided tour. John Hunter's collection is amazing.

The day ended with a traditional night out - fish and chips.

Day 2 - Group Video Greeting

Day 2 - MDX group

ERASMUS - Mentoring in Nursing in Europe - 2wk intensive programme

Hello everyone,

It was wonderful to meet you all in London.
I found the first week of the programme very interesting, we have so many similarities with regards to mentoring student nurses and yet we have many differences too.
It was wonderful to discuss and debate nursing mentoring issues in Malta, Finland, Italy and the UK.
Looking forward to week two.

Daniella

Day 1 of the Mentoring in Nursing in Europe (getting to know each other over lunch)