G38(p) Evaluating a Service to Support Mentors and Mentoring in Student Health Visitor Education

petition, with ethics committee approval (HREC-33167), all hospital nurses received an anonymous online survey invitation. Demographic, Likert scale and freeform information was collected. Questions elicited attitudes and perceived barriers or facilitators to JC. Freeform data was themed. Survey completers could provide separate details to win a voucher. Results Compared to the previous year there was a significant increase in JC attendance (2013 mean = 22 vs. 2012 mean=10, t-test p = 0.00001). Full online survey responses were received from 289/1674 (response rate 17.3%) of sent invitations (non-attendees n = 224, attendees n = 65 (18 presenters). Overall, attendees reported JC had a positive impact on their professional engagement, as shown in Figure 1. Presenters rated highly the JC format as it developed skills and increased JC confidence, as shown in Figure 2. Freeform themes indicated issues of time, session location, JC advertising and increased topic variety. Conclusion A competition format can increase nurses JC engagement and participation. Further work is required to establish applicability of this format to other settings.