Nursing mentorship can produce multiple benefits, and a higher level of nurse retention is one of them. I think each beginner nurse would agree as well that sufficient degree of professional support at the workplace boosts confidence and helps to cope with stress much effectively.
The term “mentoring” unifies a plethora of different activities aimed at performance improvement. According to McBride, Campbell, Woods, and Manson, (2017), they include “supporting, teaching, encouraging, challenging, counseling, affirming, coaching, advising, protecting, sponsoring, and providing feedback” (p. 306). Therefore, it is clear that a good nursing mentor must possess qualities that would make them fit for this position. As stated by Silkens, Slootweg, Scherpbier, Heineman, and Lombarts (2017), hospital-wide education committees can play an essential role in promoting the quality of training in clinical settings. They also add that the establishment of organization-wide quality culture and structure, as part of those committees’ work, are the major facilitators in achieving excellent training results (Silkens et al., 2017). Therefore, the claim that educators should develop a vision of promoting continual education in the hospital is absolutely valid.
However, besides that, the committee at the workplace may need to engage in more culture creating and promoting activities. Some of them are the communication of mentorship values to nurses and other care providers across the organization and the alignment of the mentorship program mission with the general vision for patient safety and service quality improvement in the hospital. It is possible to say that these practices will help to engage the clinical personnel in continual learning more easily and, thus, will increase the chance for success.
References
McBride, A. B., Campbell, J., Woods, N. F., & Manson, S. M. (2017). Building a mentoring network. Nursing Outlook, 65(3), 305-314.
Silkens, M., Slootweg, I. A., Scherpbier, A., Heineman, M. J., & Lombarts, K. (2017). Hospital-wide education committees and high-quality residency training: A qualitative study. Perspectives on Medical Education, 6(6), 396-404.