Paper
Friday, July 13, 2007
This presentation is part of : Strategies in Nursing Education
Empowerment of BScN Students and RNs through Mentoring Relationships
Carroll Iwasiw, RN, BN, MScN, EdD1, Mary-Anne Andrusyszyn, RN, BScN, MScN, EdD2, Mickey Kerr, PhD3, Dolly Goldenberg, RN, MA, MScN, PhD2, Barbara Sinclair, RN, BScN, MScN2, Cathy Parsons, RN, BScN4, Cathy Mawdsley, RN, BScN, MScN5, Kristen Lethbridge, RN, BScN, MScN2, Richard Booth, RN, BScN2, Charlene Beynon, RN, BScN, MScN6, Andrew Thomas Reyes, RN, MScN3, and Judy McKale-Waring, RN, BScN, MEd7. (1) School of Nursing, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada, (2) Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Nursing, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada, (3) School of Nursing, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada, (4) St. Joseph's Health Care London, London, ON, Canada, (5) Critical Care, London Health Sciences Centre, London, ON, Canada, (6) Professional Health Research and Education Department, Middlesex-London Health Unit, London, ON, Canada, (7) Nursing Division, Fanshawe College, London, ON, Canada
Learning Objective #1: The learner will be able to understand the relationship between mentoring and empowerment.
Learning Objective #2: The learner will be able to appreciate the benefits of a mentoring relationship for students and staff nurses.

Mentoring is a voluntary partnership in which an individual with knowledge and experience (mentor) acts as a role model, guide, and support, over an extended period of time, to facilitate a less experienced person’s (mentee’s) professional development (Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy, 1997; Hayes, 1998) without formal evaluation. To ascertain the nature, merits, characteristics, and outcomes of a formal mentoring relationship between registered nurses (RNs) and baccalaureate nursing students (BScN), 108 RNs and 104 first-year BScN students were randomly assigned to experimental (mentoring) and control groups. Nurses and students assigned to the experimental group were randomly paired and are engaging in a mentoring relationship during the 2006-07 academic year. One outcome variable of this 3-year study is empowerment. According to Kanter’s Theory of Structural Power in Organizations (1977; 1993), access to empowerment structures (information, resources, opportunities, and support) leads to self-efficacy, motivation, commitment, and job satisfaction. The mentoring relationships should provide RNs and students access to these empowerment structures.

It was hypothesized that, after the first year of mentoring, there would be significant differences in the pre-post empowerment self-ratings of RNs (n-53) and students (n=52) in the experimental group, and between the post-empowerment self-ratings of the experimental and control groups (mentor n= 55; mentee n=48). Data are being collected through web-based questionnaires, and data collection for 2006-07 will be completed by May 2007. Hypotheses will be tested with paired t-tests and multivariate regression methods. These results will be presented.The presentation will be of interest to nurse educators who may be considering the value of implementing a formal mentoring program for students.

*Funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada