VICTORIA, Seychelles — A two-day mentorship training programme for 19 senior nurses opened at a health ministry facility in Mont Fleuri on Monday, with the aim of preparing the group to act as formal mentors to the next cohort of nursing graduates. The programme, run by the Ministry of Health’s nursing directorate, is the first structured mentorship scheme of its kind for the public nursing service. It comes after years in which new graduates have described the move from training to ward work as a difficult and isolating experience.
The training is being led by Dr Mein, a senior nursing officer with more than two decades of clinical experience in the public health system. Dr Mein said the idea was to give experienced nurses a clear framework for supporting newly qualified colleagues through the difficult transition from theory to practice. The programme, she added, would also help to address longstanding issues around confidence and clinical decision-making among new recruits.
Speaking at the opening session, participants said the timing of the programme was overdue. Veena Jean, a senior nurse on the male surgical ward who has been with the ministry for 10 years, said informal mentoring had always happened but had never been properly structured. She said the new programme would make a real difference to the experience of new graduates. One of the more senior staff in the operating theatre, with more than two decades of service in the public hospital, agreed that the training would help senior nurses to better support the transition.
Dr Mein’s design draws on both local experience and international mentorship models. Participants are being introduced to coaching techniques, feedback skills, and the legal and ethical boundaries of a mentor relationship. They will also be expected to commit to regular check-ins with newly graduated nurses over the first 12 months of practice. The ministry plans to assess the programme’s impact at the end of 2024.
Brigitte Claire Mathiot, a nursing officer in the Northern Region who covers Beau Vallon and Glacis, said the training would be useful in her own day-to-day work. She has been with the ministry for 25 years and said she had seen too many new graduates leave the service in the past because of inadequate support. The structured approach, she argued, would help to retain good nurses. Dr Mein said the programme would reach around 20 nursing graduates a year, starting with the 2024 cohort.
