Mentorship part 2: assessing pre-registration student nurses.

The role of the mentor has been evolving since it was introduced following Project 2000 in 1986. The role that mentors of pre-registration nursing students are tasked with on a daily basis is crucial to the overall assessment of the student nurse. Assessment and the importance of the mentor's role when assessing the students in practice will be discussed in this article. The reliability and validity of assessment and the mentor's responsibility in assessing the competencies in the learning environment is explored, together with the roles of formative and summative assessment. The introduction of the sign-off mentor and the ongoing achievement record as part of the assessment process will also be explored. It can be argued that mentoring is not a simple task, and that there are a number of barriers to successful assessment.