This symposium reports mentor and mentee learning and growth from the second cohort that have demonstrated global leadership mentoring processes and outcomes. Throughout the 18-month program, members have sought to connect, collaborate, and catalyze global nursing leadership through relationships. Mentors and mentees met monthly or more and group calls quarterly. Members have connected through the online platform (The Circle), Skype, Zoom, What’s App, Face Time, and face-to-face meetings in Melbourne and USA. They shared textbooks and created shared expertise live and virtually. Community members have collaborated through shared experiences and reflected on their own leadership development. They have engaged in problem-solving and framing perspectives to catalyze global nursing leadership development for different contexts. Discussion topics of global leadership, global education, and global health have allowed participants to learn from global nurse leaders and explore current trends. Although other mentoring programs are reported in the literature, many have been short-term experiences (Montavlo & Veenema, 2015; Shin, Han, & Cha, 2016).
Presenters for this symposium come from every Global Region of Sigma. They cross 16 time zones and a range of life and professional experiences. The Symposium reflects the diversity - both worldwide as well as in content - of the application of the Global Leadership Mentoring Community and its effectiveness in facilitating growth for members. The Community members bring the program to life-"Picture" the presentation with individuals or pairs sharing their journeys across the globe. Mentors provided guidance on areas identified by mentees—professional career growth, work/life balance, clinical leadership, and leadership in Sigma at both chapter and international levels. Drawing on personal and professional experience, mentors could advise, facilitate and connect with mentees on many levels. Mentors connected mentees to resources and specialists in their interest area. The intentional conversations between the global pairs revealed more commonalities than cultural differences.
The Community group leaders recognize that taking part in something new poses risk. Leaders focused on encouraging relevant exposure and taking risks, two key elements in global nursing leadership development. Awareness of the international nursing scene supports understanding of how global nurse leaders work with each other and ways to participate. Mentors and mentees may feel that their contributions are unremarkable or that they do not have the wisdom or insights of others - not just about engaging in global nursing ventures but in everything new or different that we want to do. It is through this Community experience that participants are encouraged to persevere. With one small step at a time, mentor pairing allows participants to perform better with experience and practice, and the Community looks forward to continued communications and growing relationships. There were many lessons learned.
The Community has identified challenges and opportunities, but we still seek to fully define global nursing and global nursing leadership. These concepts are more enigmatic and require reflective analysis longitudinally. We seek to be more than a group of people from all around the world getting together and we hope to continue to encourage each other as we engage in these processes of value and valuing nursing. There are many questions yet to answer as we interact and grow in global nursing leadership.