In an innovative group mentoring approach, four experienced midwives mentored four new graduates during their first year\r\nof practice. The new graduates were in practice as case-loading registered midwives having completed a three year Bachelor of\r\nMidwifery degree. Detailed data about the new graduatesââ?¬â?¢ concerns were collected throughout the year of the mentoring project. A\r\nrange of practice areasââ?¬â?administrative, working environment, professional culture, clinical issues and the mentor group itselfââ?¬â?\r\nwere prominent issues. New graduates were concerned about their own professional development and about relationships with\r\nothers particularly relationships within the hospital. Technical questions focussed more on craft knowledge that develops through\r\nexperience than on clinical skills or knowledge. Identifying these concerns provides a foundation for mentors, preceptors and\r\nthose designing professional development support programmes for the first year of practice. It may be that new graduatemidwives\r\neducated in a profession with a narrowly defined scope of practice have a different range of concerns to new graduates who have\r\nwider scopes of practice. The use of a group model of mentoring for supporting new graduate midwives proved stimulating for\r\nmentors and highly supportive of new graduates.
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