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Mentorship
Workforce Development
Workforce Issues

Virtual mentorship: the opportunities and limitations for nurses in international health partnerships

09 May 2024
International Nurses Day
02 May 2024
Volume 33 · Issue 9

In today's post-COVID-19 world, the impact of the pandemic on global healthcare systems has resulted in them operating under substantial pressure, and this is expected to continue for the foreseeable future (Page et al, 2023). This inevitably impacts on the prioritisation of resources, which include health professionals.

International health partnerships are reliant on health professionals sharing and exchanging knowledge and expertise either virtually or through in-country visits. However, in the current climate, health professionals may feel they are already overstretched, and therefore finding the time to commit to working with an international project may be difficult. In consequence, virtual projects and activities may offer a solution. This is increasingly possible because the COVID-19 pandemic led to rapid transition to, and acceptance of, virtual activities for partnerships (Tropical Health and Education Trust (THET), 2021; 2023).

Birmingham City University's health partnership with emergency, trauma and critical care nurses in Zambia is no exception and we have had several successful virtual volunteering projects. We have recently commenced a new partnership project on virtual mentorship. In preparation for the project, the partnership team reviewed the published literature to check if our approach was appropriate and based on current evidence. In previous projects, activities have been co-ordinated using a ‘hub-and-spoke’ model, in which the university acted as the hub. The spokes of the model are made up of emergency, trauma and critical care nurses working in acute NHS hospitals who provide their Zambian peers with virtual and in-country expertise, as requested. This provides a forum through which nurses can volunteer on different levels, both virtually and/or in-country. Also, with hospitals under pressure, this model of volunteering maximises effectiveness by increasing the pool of volunteers available and also increases opportunities for nurses who may not be able to travel overseas.

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