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Launching a mentoring program: One hospital's journey

Nurse Leader Weekly, January 11, 2008

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The Providence St. Peter Hospital Nursing Practice Council in Olympia, WA, launched a successful new formal mentoring program in 2007 and is now in the process of planning a formal residency course.

First, the nursing practice council defined what the hospital wanted from a mentoring program, which included supporting key behavioral values central to the organization. The end goal of mentoring at Providence St. Peter is to increase job satisfaction, reduce turnover for the organization, and "pay it forward" to the upcoming younger professional nurse generation.

Mentors act in a leadership capacity and are expected to convey established operational procedures and coach new employees. For that reason, mentors should be selected based on their ability to coach and motivate, act as change agents, and demonstrate good organizational citizenship.

The unit directors at Providence St. Peter are responsible for identifying staff nurse mentors, and a packet of information is offered to interested nurses. With the understanding that mentoring is different than shorter-term precepting, the unit educator offers to act as a matchmaker at the first meeting.

The hospital's new nurses are informed of the mentoring program by the unit educators. After sharing the expectations and criteria for the program with the new nurses, the educators discuss central topics with them, including guiding criteria for first meeting conversations, communication tools, and possible relationship goals.

Editor's Note: This excerpt was adapted from the article, "Helping new grads adjust to the nursing world" featured in the Reading Room on HCPro's new online resource center, www.StrategiesForNurseManagers.com!

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