The World Health Organization recognizes the critical need for nurses worldwide and seeks ways to scale up health workforce programs in every region of the globe (WHO, 2018). In an integrative review of educational needs in Sub Saharan Africa, six themes emerged; curriculum reforms, profession regulation, transformative teaching strategies, collaboration and partnership, capacity building and infrastructure, and resources (Bvumbwe & Mtshali, 2018). The review identified needs in strategic leadership, networking and partnership. Their conclusion stated that the region needed more reforms to increase the capacity of educators and mentors. Thompson (2016) further states that it is the responsibility of education, practice, and professional organizations to develop generationally-astute global leaders. She describes global perspective as an essential skill when mentoring nurses who provide leadership at the point of care. One of the salient themes for the mentor-mentee pairs in this community was that of strengthening educational leadership.
During one GLMC mentor-mentee meeting, it was noted that student evaluations of teaching (SET) are employed by academic institutions in both the United States and Australia as one of the standard measurements to evaluate teaching effectiveness for promotion and tenure. The SET usually provides topic-specific measurement scores in conjunction with comments written by students. Negative comments may create unwarranted emotional stress for the faculty members. While it is important for the faculty to review the comments from students and self-reflect for future improvements, the mentee was advised to print a hard copy of all the positive comments individually and place them inside a “Happy Box.” Through this activity, common themes such as caring, nurturing, compassion, and gratitude were noted in the comments generated by students. Ultimately, the comments collected in the Happy Box can serve as life-long positive motivation for junior faculty members as well as seasoned faculty as they strive to flourish in an academia setting.
In another example, the mentee was a PhD student in the Middle East Region. She recognized that new students did not have a sense of how to advance their scholarship in education and thought she might use her experiences to assist these students. Thus, the mentee saw mentoring opportunities of her own. She conceived the idea of having a student support group and approached the program director who she hoped would approve such a venture, and received approval to do so. In this way, the mentee went beyond her area of comfort and achieved the goal of making her mentoring experience benefit the global graduate student population. The mentor and mentee attribute the approach strategies and success to monthly conversations within the community. The mentor/mentee relationship allowed candid conversations, and common life experience was the background for sharing them within the international context.
One mentee in North America, who worked with a mentor in Africa, described how the mentor used the art of reflection to help guide her through every interaction and subject matter discussed. This reflective mentoring allowed them to discuss current content and experiences and view the benefits of this unique counseling and coaching approach to develop mentor/mentee relationships from a unique perspective. They discussed their own faculty development experiences from a global context with associated commonalities, differences, and new ideas for navigating professional developmental pathways.
Another unique GLMC experience is peer mentoring. Two GLMC mentees left the nursing community due to the another's life commitment and relocation. Two mid-career mentors from North America and Australia were then paired. They established goals and collaborative plans to support global educational scholarships and leadership. The first project is a collaborative publication of the global leadership mentoring experience. This publication will demonstrate how peer mentoring relationships advance their careers and global leadership development. They utilized technologies and tools to enhance the ability to connect and collaborate. The creation and re-creation of their work through development and editing for one another was a new experience in itself, now broadened to two world areas and perspectives. Secondly, they have opportunities to share experiences in nursing education, global health issues, and global leadership development. Following the trend of online education becoming more popular among working adults including nurses, both members discovered that they had taught the same course to nursing students in different countries, using different teaching modalities --in person and online. This created an opportunity for future collaboration in nursing education, research, and publication. The relationship provided mutual benefit for mid-career nursing faculty to support and gain knowledge from each other.
Finally, one mentor in North America focused on providing support for her mentee who was a mental health nursing professor and community leader. She sought mental health resources to meet the needs of her students and community, especially related to suicide prevention and mental health first aid training. The mentor, who specializes in women’s health, introduced her mentee to a colleague who is a respected leader in the field of mental health nursing, and had presented globally. They collaboratively arranged a session on conducting a debriefing and presented via Zoom to the nursing faculty and staff at her Middle Eastern university with others to follow. The presenters allowed ample time for questions covering topics such as the perception of mental health issues, treatment, and resources available to healthcare professionals and client stigma attached to a mental health diagnosis since communication strategies and approach vary from country to country. The mentor and mentee were eventually able to meet in person in North America through a Mental Health Training program. The mentor brought current mental health textbooks for the mentee to take back to her university. Both mentor and mentee have reviewed and provided input on scholarly articles for each other. Thus, the mentor-mentee relationship has been fluid and beneficial to both.
We began by appreciating the fact that mentors and mentees within this Community are at different career stages—beginning, mid, and perhaps nearing retirement. Another point relates to demonstrating leadership by attention to situations that require innovation (Melynk & Davidson, 2009) and emotional resiliency in order to cope with the associated stress (Edwards & Ashkanasy, 2018). While nurse educators need to adhere to the agreed-upon curriculum plan for a program, we need to be alert for times when an innovation strategy might be in order. Our own recognition and passion for improvement can allow us to lead. Linda Caputi (2017) described how innovation relates to leadership when the nurse educator recognizes the gap, assumes a leadership role to correct it, and in doing so, increases awareness of others about one's leadership potential or readiness for advancement. These nascent processes of encouraging development of nurse educators through global conversations can enrich both parties and our body of work.