Equipping for Leadership: A Key Mentoring Practice

Purpose: Previous studies examining predictors of mentoring benefits among pediatric staff nurse protégés representing healthcare organizations across 26 states demonstrated that protégé perception of quality was the single best predictor of mentoring benefits. The ability to identify the mentoring practices that predict specific benefits for individual nurses provides a better understanding of how mentoring relationships can be leveraged within health care organizations to promote the mutual benefits of mentoring. The primary aim of the study was to determine if mentoring practices predict mentoring benefits. In addition, the researchers were interested in exploring the relationship between the subscales of mentoring practices and benefits. 

Methods: This descriptive, correlational, non-experimental study of 186 nurses at a northeast Ohio, Magnet® recognized, free-standing pediatric hospital was conducted using survey methodology. The online survey contained demographic items, items on mentoring experiences, and two valid and reliable instruments, the Mentoring Practices Inventory (MPI) (Cronbach’s alpha =  0.98)  and Mentoring Benefits Inventory (MBI) (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.98). The MPI measured the independent variable, mentoring practices, and the MBI measured the dependent variable, mentoring benefits.

Results: The research hypothesis that mentoring practices predict mentoring benefits was supported and the correlation between total mentoring practices and total mentoring benefits was .89 (p<0.01). The mentoring practice of equipping of leadership predicted five mentoring benefits: Belonging (adjusted R²=0.591, p=.049), Career Optimism (adjusted R²=0.747, p=.003), Professional Growth (adjusted R²=0.737, p=.000), Security (adjusted R²=0.771, p=.000), and Leadership Readiness (adjusted R²=0.567, p=.000).

Conclusion: These findings suggest that mentoring initiatives should consider the strong role of the mentoring practice ‘equipping for leadership’ in predicting overall mentoring benefits. During a time in healthcare when nursing leaders are needed to transform care and care delivery, it is interesting and practically significant that this research study demonstrated that ‘equipping for leadership’ was the most prevalent mentoring practice promoting the benefits of mentoring. This finding suggests that there is a connection between the science of developing people through mentoring and the science of leadership development. Further research is needed to explore this finding.