In the absence of a structured system for peer mentorship and quality improvement, nursing and paramedical institutes often operate in isolation. Without credible support structures, quality gaps widen across the board. Such limited opportunities for low performing institutes to learn from stronger peers may lead to issues:

● For low quality institutes: Stagnancy of institute’s quality as poor practices remain unchecked.

● For faculty: Without structured mentorship from high performing peers, teachers lack exposure to best practices in pedagogy and clinical training.

● For students: Inconsistent training standards and uneven student learning and placement outcomes.

● For regulator: Regulators face difficulty enforcing continuous quality improvement without active collaboration across institutes. 60 The National Nursing and Midwifery Commission (NNMC) Act, 2023 allows the The Nursing and Midwifery Undergraduate and Postgraduate Education Board to facilitate development and training of faculty members for teaching and research. The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 emphasises peer learning networks, faculty development, and capacity-building initiatives as critical levers for improving quality in higher education. An institute mentoring reform with a mentor–mentee structure directly addresses these gaps. By pairing high-performing institutes with those institutes needing improvement, it enables peer learning and creates market-led incentives by ensuring that better performing institutes get better pay for their mentorship programme.

To create a mentor–mentee model where strong institutes support weaker ones through peer learning, driving quality improvement and building incentives for excellence.

The institute mentoring program, aligned with NNMC Act, 2023, strengthens peer learning and quality improvement across nursing and midwifery institutes, with the following key principles:

● Sustainable business model – The program should be designed to create long-term value, with incentives for high performing mentor institutes and clear pathways for mentee institutes to grow, ensuring continuity beyond initial support.

● Self governing – Mentor–mentee networks should evolve into self-sustaining peer-led systems, reducing dependence on regulators and fostering ownership within institutes.

● Minimum standard achieved – Any interested mentor institute must meet the minimum 75 standards set up to become a mentor institute.

  • Develop clear guidelines outlining the objectives, roles and responsibilities of both mentor institutes and mentees institutes.

  • Organise a state-wide workshop for all nursing education institutes, to introduce the mentorship programme. Share detailed guidelines, timelines, and expectations with all institutes.

  • Circulate a form (preferably digital) for institutes to apply for mentor institute status within a fixed timeline. It is also to note that if rating of institutes hasn’t happened in the current cycle, any institute can nominate itself to become a mentor institute. However, once an institute rating process is established, only institutes rated equivalent to A or B can nominate to be a mentor institute.

    • Sample signed letter for mentor expression of interest from Bihar: [Download here] 

  • The interested institutes should receive an email with standardized templates, including a letter of interest, application form, institute profiling presentation, and a self-assessment tool. These templates must be completed and submitted by the institutes within the specified timeline.

  • Interested institutes will undergo a desk assessment by a technical partner or departmental committee. They may also interact with any interested institutes, if needed. A minimum of 85% standards have to be met by any interested institute to be shortlisted for field assessment.

  • Shortlisted institutes will undergo a field assessment by a technical partner or departmental committee. The top 10–20 institutes may be selected to become mentor institutes (depending on need of state). In case, enough institutes are not able to meet the standards, a Quality Improvement (QI) program for potential mentor institutes may be implemented.

  • Institutes that achieve >85% in both self assessment and field assessment will be recognized as mentor institutes. Mentor institutes may be announced during a large-scale state-level event.

  • Mentor institutes receive a letter from the regulator to establish QI teams. Each team may consist of 2 nodal officers/mentors faculty and 6 members to mentor faculty members of low-performing institutes to enhance teaching skills and subject matter expertise.

    • Training of nodal persons: A three-day in-person training session will be conducted with QI teams by the technical agency for orientation on:
      ○ Institute Quality standards
      ○ Roles and responsibilities of QI team
      ○ Quality improvement processes
      ● Further capacity building of different stakeholders may also be done via training modules:
      ○ All faculty of nursing and midwifery institutes:
      ■ Objective structured clinical examination (OSCE)
      ■ Clinical skills standardization
      ■ Simulation techniques
      ○ Nodal officers:
      ■ Pragati module (Quality improvement process, Performance standards orientation, quality improvement and quality assurance)
      ■ Teaching learning process module (Pedagogical skills)
      ■ Clinical and community practice process module
      ○ Principals:
      ■ Managerial module

  • After the evaluation process, every mentor institute will initiate reaching out to underperforming institutes (C/D/E rated institutes if ratings have happened) to assist them in enhancing the quality of education. Those institutes interested in receiving support will submit their Letter of Intent (LoI) to the mentor institutes.
    Once the mentor and mentee institutes reach an agreement, they may formalize it through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). Under this MoU, the institutes define a business model around Quality Improvement Packages (QIPs) in silver, gold, and platinum tiers. The mentee institute subscribes to these packages on a payment basis. Each package specifies the quality improvement process (guided by the mentor institute) along with clear timelines for execution.

    • Quality Improvement Packages (QIP): ● Silver: 60% of overall standards achievements
      ● Gold: 75% of overall standards achievements
      ● Platinum: 85% of overall standards achievements

    • MoU between mentor - mentee institutes from Uttar Pradesh: [Download here] 

  • Once the assessment is done by the third-party quality assurance agency, a new rating may be published for the mentee institute based on the approval of the regulatory authority. In addition, mentor faculty must be certified for achieving successful improvement in the ratings of the mentee institute.

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