Mentors in Professional Nursing - Research Paper Example

? Mentors in Professional Nursing Maria Robinson EKU Perspectives in Professional Nursing II NSC 385 Sharon Evans RN, MS February 24, Mentors inProfessional Nursing Introduction Mentoring is essential in the professional development of both trainee and experienced nurses within the scope of professional nursing and cuts across fields such as clinical practice, administration, nursing education, and research. Mentoring augments the novice’s desire to experience both satisfaction and success as a professional nurse and at the same time, provides the experienced nurse with an opportunity to give back to the profession. Mariani (2012) defines a mentoring relationship as one that is developmental, nurturing, empowering, and that requires commitment and self-confidence from both the mentor and the mentee. Mentorship extends over a period of time, within which reciprocal sharing, learning, and development take place in an environment formed around respect and collegiality (Mariani, 2012). Further, Mariani (2012) emphasizes that reinforcing mentoring relationships within the nursing profession is essential in order to ensure that crucial facets of the vocation are retained, particularly in the present day healthcare environment. Moreover, an effective nurse mentor relationship is important for the upcoming generation of nurses. The purpose of this paper is to discuss how mentors support the nursing profession, the required characteristics of a mentor, and components of an effective mentor program. How Mentoring Supports the Nursing Profession Today, training, education and administration within the nursing profession is required to support and provide fundamental solutions that are directed toward the existing and progressively waning decline in nursing professionals’ collegiality, self-confidence, and support. Indeed, the consequential damaging effects are realized in declining staff performance, and in deficient patient care outcomes. Additionally, the rapidly transforming health care environment requires that actions be taken to reinforce and inspire new and experienced nurses so as to retain competent nursing staff. Consequently, mentorship offers a unique opportunity for newer nurses to cultivate durable relationships with experienced nurses that are beneficial to the growth of both individuals and contributes to the retention of nurses within the organization and the profession. As noted earlier, mentors offer information, support and professional advice to novice nurses over an extended period of time. As such, both the mentor and mentee devote a substantial amount in the mentoring relationship emotionally, thus enabling self-directed growth and learning. To this end, mentorship provides many benefits to the nursing profession. First, mentoring helps decreases or alleviates stress and anxiety among nursing professional which impacts burnout rates. In recent years, professional nursing has been considered as an extremely stressful occupation owing to the increasing acuity of patients, declining staffing ratios, and time pressures arising from increasing productivity and performance requirements in healthcare facilities. In a research conducted at two tertiary care hospitals in New Delhi, Bhatia, Kishore, Anand, and Jiloha (2010) reported substantial job stress in approximately 87.4% of the eighty seven staff nurse respondents. According to the study, “time pressure” was identified as the top placed stressor (Bhatia, Kishore, Anand, & Jiloha, 2010). In another study, Duvall and Andrews (2010) surveyed the literature to establish why staff nurses left the bedside in connection to the nursing shortage and increased turnover rates. The study revealed a variety of reasons including management issues, job stress, job design, physical demands, and the inability to develop new nurses (Duvall & Andrews, 2010, p. 309). Furthermore, job stress has been linked to poor job satisfaction (Hassell, Archbold, & Stichman, 2011), undesirable physical and mental health outcomes (Nash, 2010), and ultimately to burnout and turnover (Jamal, 2010) (Chung, 2011). Mentoring has been identified as a key approach to reducing nursing job stress and burn out rates. Expressly, mentoring relationships enable an increase in psychological empowerment and occupational satisfaction for both the mentor and mentee by facilitating professional growth. Subsequently, job satisfaction eventually results in employee retention. Notably, in a mentoring relationship, the mentor replicates and inculcates positive professional behaviors and acquaints the mentee with existing social networks. The mentee is then able to utilize or apply the demonstrated positive behaviors and acquire organizational data alongside gaining vital social support from the existing social networks, consequently augmenting psychological empowerment. As a result, job satisfaction and retention are improved while stress and burn out rates are declined (Chung, 2011). Secondly, mentorship programs support the nursing profession by reducing nurse turnover rates. Indeed, today, the turnover rate for new graduate nurse hires has escalated. According to numerous studies, approximately 35 to 61 percent of fresh graduate Registered Nurses turn over in their first year of employment. The increased turnover rate amongst graduate nurses has been linked to several issues. Commonly, new RNs nurses have minimal clinical experience when they go into the hospital setting, though they are often obligated to accept and assume the entire responsibility of patient care within a comparatively short period of time. As a result, this generates work pressure and stress, considerably impacting job satisfaction and institutional commitment. In addition to being fiscally expensive for an organization, high nurse turnover rates have been linked to negative outcomes on patient quality. According to a 2002 JCAHO report, lower nursing turnover rates can be associated with superior quality of care assessments (Edwardson, 2011). Moreover, numerous studies have established that high nurse turnover rates are also the source of organizational stress and instability. Consequently, mentoring plays a critical role in improving job satisfaction and ultimately reduces the nurse turnover rates within the profession. Notably, mentoring is a mutual, enduring relationship with an emotional investment that links a protege and experienced nurse mentor. In this way, mentoring entails knowledge or competence gradient, whereby the instruction-learning practice complements the sharing of expertise or guidance, role development, and offers both formal and informal support to develop the career of the mentee. Indeed, mentoring provides mentees and mentors with opportunities for both professional development and job satisfaction. The absence of such essential satisfaction with a job in nursing may lead to nurses’ deserting the profession. The role of mentorship in reducing turnover rates has been adequately demonstrated by the St. Francis Hospital and Health Centers case study. In 2005, the St. Francis Hospital and Health Centers was facing a 16.6 percent turnover rate amongst its RNs, which included an alarming 32 percent turnover rate among its first-year RNs. following a fact-finding research, in 2006, the hospital embarked on the implementation of an RN mentor program to increase satisfaction and decrease turnover rates (Fox, 2010). The hospital initiated a pilot program involving 12 RN mentors and 12 RN mentees from different nursing units. The outcomes of the one year pilot program showed a 0% turnover rate. Subsequent to these results, the mentor program was extended to incorporate RNs employed in the inpatient, surgery and emergency nursing units (Fox, 2010). Notably, the hospital has recorded a significant decline in the RN turnover rate in each year the program has been operational. For instance, in 2009, the turnover rate at the hospital was 10.3%. Moreover, surveys of nurses involved in the program indicate a significant improvement in the overall job satisfaction. Following the high success of the program, its scope has been extended to involve other professionals facing high turnover in beleaguered departments, ranging from radiological technicians, pharmacists, respiratory therapists, and physical therapists (Fox, 2010). Thirdly, mentoring relationships support the nursing profession by helping to create an increase in nursing leaders. According to a 2010 report by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) on the future of nursing mentoring, is the most appropriate approach to strengthening the nursing profession while, at the same time, improving the quality and outcomes of care given to patients (Institute of Medicine (IOM), 2010). Indeed, nurses form the major group of health care professionals and subsequently have more direct contact with patients in comparison to other healthcare providers. Consequently, they are required to have distinctive perspectives to engage in debates and deliberations regarding health care reform. Mentoring aids nurses to develop and grow into the type of leaders who can significantly contribute in the expansion, design and provision of health care, which eventually reinforces the entire health care system (Institute of Medicine (IOM), 2010). The role and required characteristics of a mentor A mentor is identified as an experienced nurse leader who demonstrates the ability to formulate formal and informal relationships that foster the mentee’s capacity to grow and develop both as an individual and as a professional. Nevertheless, for this relationship to be a success, it has to be dynamic, reciprocal to both the mentor and protege and has to have specific purpose. According to Ali and Panther (2008) nurse mentors require a variety of characteristics that are significant for their role as mentors. The first characteristic of an effective nurse mentor is the Advisor. The mentor nurse is expected to offer constructive support and advice to their protege regarding their career progression choices, increasing social contacts and creating networks. As an adviser, the mentor should be able to assess and always consider the mentee’s competencies and limitations when offering advice. The second characteristic is the Role Model. As a role model, the mentor nurse is a visible image for simulation, skills and qualities demonstration. The role model nurse mentor is constantly under scrutiny and should at all times demonstrate and uphold superior standards and professionalism. The third characteristic of the effective nurse mentor is the Problem solver. As a problem solver, the nurse mentor is required to assist the mentee to critically evaluate and solve problems, thus encouraging the development of problem solving, creative and critical thinking, and decision-making skills (Ali & Panther , 2008). Fourth, the nurse mentor should be a Teacher- supporter. As a teacher, the mentor should be able to pass on skills, knowledge and competencies; offer guidance; create and provide learning experiences; and allow intervals for practice. As a supporter, the mentor should inspire both personal and professional development by providing professional and moral support to the mentee whenever necessary. Fifth, the nurse mentor should always exhibit Honesty and be trustworthy.an effective mentor should always demonstrate honesty in their appraisals of, counsel to and communication with mentees. By being honest, mentors are able to establish relationships with their mentees that are founded on trust. Lastly, mentors should demonstrate enthusiasm in building effective work relationships with their mentees (Ali & Panther , 2008). Particularly, nurse mentors should be able to develop and inculcate virtues of leadership as well as team work amongst their proteges. Overall, mentors should be able to stand back, be impartial and non-judgmental, and show the emotional intelligence essential for them to empathize with their mentees. Most of all, mentors must exhibit the essential capability and aptitude to realize the potential inherent within the mentee. Components of an Effective Mentor Program and Relationship The key to the growth of skilled and competent nurses for the health care profession is effective mentoring programs. Indeed, the establishment of an effective mentoring program necessitates an exhaustive understanding of the interrelationships linking mentoring, leadership, and organizational culture. Conventionally, mentoring has been identified as a didactic, informal and unstructured process (Rolfe 2008). Conversely, present-day mentoring involves a variety of components that have led to the emergence of different and more structured mentoring approaches (Rolfe 2008). Even though there is no single universally accepted mentoring model, some of the suggested models exhibit a number of components that are essential to the success of the program. These components include: i. Establishing effective working relationships ii. Facilitate learning iii. Assessment and accountability iv. Evaluation of learning v. Create an environment for learning vi. Content of practice vii. Evidence based practice viii. Leadership Conclusion: Mentorship has been present in healthcare for many years. The role of the nurse mentor is not an easy one. Effective mentor programs are vital to the healthcare system and nursing profession. An effective mentor relationship is the solution for a myriad of issues within the nursing profession consisting of the nursing shortage, high turnover rates and creating more nurse leaders. Further, to establish effective mentorship relationships, mentors are required to exhibit a variety of unique characteristics ranging from problem solving, advisory roles, teaching, to role modeling. Moreover, effective mentoring programs should be established within the nursing context, offer leadership opportunities, create conducive learning environments among other components. In essence, effective mentoring programs are beneficial for those who participate in them through enrolment, improving morale, retention, and supporting professional development. Ultimately, the process of mentor ship results in improved quality of nursing care which impacts patient outcomes. References Ali , P., & Panther , W. (2008). Professional development and the role of mentorship. Nursing Standard 22, 42, 35-39. Bhatia, N., Kishore, J., Anand, T., & Jiloha, R. (2010). Occupational stress amongst nurses from two tertiary care hospitals in Delhi. Australasian Medical Journal (Online)(11), 731-738. Brown, L. (2012, September). What influences mentors to pass or fail students. Nursing Management, 19, 16-21. Chung, C. (2011). Job stress,mentoring, psychological empowerment, and job satisfaction among nursing faculty. UNLV Theses/Dissertations/Professional Papers/Capstones.Paper 1266, http://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2258&context=thesesdissertations. 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Building organizational capacity for effective mentorship of pre-registration nursing students during placement learning: Finnish and British mentors’ conceptions. International Journal of Nursing Practice, 17, 509-517. http://dx.doi.org/doi: 10.1111/j.1440-172X.2011.01964.x Mariani, B. (2012). The Effect of Mentoring on Career Satisfaction of Registered Nurses and Intent to Stay in the Nursing Profession. Nursing Research and Practice Volume 2012, http://www.hindawi.com/journals/nrp/2012/168278/#B27. Price, B. (2012, August 8). Key principles in assessing students’ practice-based learning. Nursing Standard, 26, 49-55. Read More