For this assignment I will address Morton-Cooper & Palmer's (2005) enabling traits and discuss the core competencies of a mentor. I will analyze and reflect on how I used these skills with a third year nursing student in my area of ​​practice (cardiology). I will also reflect and evaluate my mentoring experience with my student to see if there is any area of ​​improvement or change that needs to be modified. The Department of Health (2001) defined a mentor as an individual who facilitates learning, supervises and evaluates students in a practice setting. As mentors, they dedicated time to students, monitored student performance, set boundaries for the shift, knew what students were learning, explained what they were doing, asked questions, challenged students, and served as positive role models. In summary, an effective mentor is someone who has particular insights into the nature of human beings and how they should be treated, has certain personal attributes, up-to-date knowledge and skills relevant to their professional practice, and a genuine desire to devote time and energy to the role of mentor. This is important because it helps to build students' confidence and also to be able to work in a friendly environment. Morton-Cooper & Palmer (2005) identified three enabling characteristics/traits of an effective mentor that would be explored in the essay. This entailed competence, trust and commitment. As a mentor I must prepare before meeting the needs of my students. My manager provided me with my student's details, including the year and duration of the department. With this information, I prepared the shift schedule to suit my student for the first week. I met my student for the first time and introduced myself to her as her mentor. I… half of the article… have an important role in developing nursing student learning. Interaction with patients and their families during this experience helps nursing students develop technical, psychomotor, interpersonal and communication skills (Banning et al 2006). In conclusion, mentoring is an important and effective adult learning strategy. You need to recognize that once you take on the role of mentor, you will need to be equipped with relevant educational training and up-to-date knowledge. Being a mentor has given me the opportunity to develop learning skills in my clinical practice which will contribute to student learning in the future. It is ideal for mentor and student to connect before starting the internship. The reflection process gave me the skills to reflect, address strengths and weaknesses and the opportunity to address issues within the practice area.