Mentoring Approach to Professional Development

There is a significant decrease in nurse educators in the 21^stcentury. According to AACN’s 2012-2013 report on Enrollment and Graduations in Baccalaureate and Graduate Programs in Nursing, approximately 79,659 qualified applicants are turned away from U.S. baccalaureate and graduate nursing schools. Reasons for this were due to insufficient number of faculty, clinical sites, classroom space, and clinical preceptors, as well as budget constraints. Almost two-thirds of these nursing schools responding to the survey pointed to faculty shortages as a reason for not accepting all qualified applicants into their programs. This ripple effect leads to a decrease in nurses in the workforce. Unfilled faculty positions, resignations, projected retirements, and the shortage of students being prepared for the faculty role pose a threat to the nursing education workforce. Working with students to encourage them to be active participants in the learning process is beneficial. For example, by encouraging students to revise assignments based on the feedback received can bring about a collaborative experience for both the student and educator. By providing feedback, guidance and encouragement to the student is a way to transfer knowledge. Nurse educators working with students to prepare manuscripts for publications are another process to instill professional behaviors. Bridging the gap between student and educator, developing a collaborative academic working relationship, while instilling the critical elements required for professional and skilled communication imparts significance importance to the nursing profession. These professional development approaches can be applied through mentoring.

Mentoring is an evidenced-based concept and mechanism for professional development that has shown positive outcomes to recruitment and retention, and professional organizational culture. In order to foster a healthy academic learning environment mentoring needs to begin in nursing schools through different types of experiences other than the standard clinical practicums. These experiences can be gained as a research or teaching assistant. Through these roles discussions will be based on the different learning opportunities and experiences (e.g., in developing simulation and genetic scenarios; or as a member of a research team) undergraduate and graduate nursing students have engaged in with nursing faculty. During these experiences students have gained additional practice and have improved on their communication skills which have enhanced the educational process. It is essential for all current nurse educators to share one’s knowledge and pass the torch of educator. Developing a culture of mentoring that begins in the academic setting is essential for academic success, professional growth and career development, potentially fostering new nurses to become mentors themselves in their work environment. As the Institute of Medicine and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Report on the Future of Nursing highlight, nurse mentoring plays a crucial role in assisting nurses to develop into the kind of leader who can play a larger part in the development, design and delivery of health care.