A cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) analysis of prehospital emergency medical care clinical mentorship to enable learning

Abstract

Mentorship in health sciences education and thus in prehospital emergency medical care should be a nurtured, guided venture led by an experienced mentor. In most instances, mentees from higher education institutions are placed on the clinical platform in emergency medical services, hospitals and clinics, where they are mentored by qualified, registered healthcare practitioners. Recent research indicates that there are problems with mentor/mentee relationships in health sciences education. The relationship between mentees and mentors as analysed within an activity system illustrated the difficulties within clinical mentorship.Background. Clinical mentorship in health sciences education is a nurtured venture where mentees are guided through practice by their more experienced mentors. However, recent research suggests that there are problems with clinical mentorship. Objective. To explore problems in work-integrated learning within the mentor/mentee relationship. Methods. The cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) was used to interpret data gathered from diaries and focus group interviews. Results. Difficulties identified were poor communication between the university and the mentors at clinical platform sites. The unclear roles and responsibilities of mentees and mentors led to a breakdown of trust. Conclusions. Better university training and development of mentors would aid in the holistic development of mentors and mentees.This open-access article is distributed under Creative Commons licence CC-BY-NC 4.0.