Developing the skills to support nursing and midwifery students with specific learning differences in practice

The literature highlights the difficulties that those supporting students with a specific learning difference (SpLD) in practice may have and calls for more education of practice mentors. As a result of concerns locally, nursing and midwifery students who have a SpLD were interviewed to recount their practice experiences. Short films were made from these stories which formed the basis for developing a learning resource to educate novice mentors and develop their skills to support and assess students with SpLDs appropriately. The learning resource was piloted and evaluated, to investigate the effect the learning resource had on novice mentors' knowledge about SpLDs and their attitudes, feelings and skills. The learning resource was delivered to 72 novice mentors on a mentorship preparation course. Sixty-one completed pre and post session questionnaires and participated in a world cafá© exercise to evaluate the resource. The evaluation results indicated that the resource had a positive effect on novice mentors' knowledge, skills and attitudes towards students with a SpLD.