During her nursing diploma, Kristina Royds encountered different mentorship styles. Here she explains how she used the reflective cycle to guide her professional development

During a three-year nursing course, the author used Gibbs’s reflective cycle to consider two placement experiences in residential homes; one for older people, and the other for people with learning disabilities. The first student-mentor interviews and subsequent thoughts and feelings are described, and lessons learned about self, mentorship and staff culture are discussed. These experiences led to the decision to qualify as a learning disability nurse.