Collaborative Mentoring: Helping the At-risk Student

Bloom, Kathaleen C.

Monday, 18 November 2013: 10:40 AM

Kathaleen C. Bloom, PhD, CNM
Lillia Loriz, PhD, GNP-C
Cynthia Cummings, EdD, RN
William D. Ahrens, MSN, RN
Stefanie M. Rivera, BS
School of Nursing, University of North Florida, Jacksonville, FL

Learning Objective 1: discuss the components of a collaborative mentoring program.

Learning Objective 2: identify the characteristics of students entering the mentoring program.

Advances in biomedical sciences and increasing complexity of healthcare delivery systems require changes in the way nurses are educated. Attrition in nursing programs and NCLEX-RN failures by students who have successfully completed their nursing education are serious concerns for all nurse educators. The purpose of the study is to examine the impact of a collaborative mentoring program on the academic progression of students identified as at-risk for academic or NCLEX-RN failure. The voluntary mentoring program, with three mentor choices: faculty, peer, or community, is offered to all prelicensure students on entry into the nursing program. Students may request a mentor at any point in the curriculum.

This presentation reports preliminary results of the study. To daye, 211 students who entered the school of nursing in six cohorts (academic years 2010-11; 2011-12) are participating in the study. Thirty-two students have requested and been paired with a mentor (15.17%). The average age of the participants is 26.27. The participants are predominantly Caucasian females who speak English as their first language. The majority live on their own, have strong support from others, and work an average of 9.22 hours/ week outside of the program. The average entering GPA was 3.78.

Participants are primarily balanced on the active-reflective and sequential-global scales and tend toward intuitive and verbal learning on the Index of Learning Styles. They scored moderately high on the Nursing Professional Values Scale, the Nursing Image Questionnaire, and the nursing is a means for achieving personal goals dimension of the Nursing Orientation Tool (NOT). Participants scored moderately low, however, on the caring and expertise dimensions on the NOT.

With one cohort having graduated to date, the on-time graduation and NCLEX-RN pass rates are 100%. Two of these students utilized a faculty mentor. The next two cohorts will graduate in May and August 2013.

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