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Inside best practice: Follow these 10 steps to a good mentoring program

HCPro's Weekly Update on the ANCC Magnet Recognition Program®*, July 29, 2008

About 50% of the new nurses in the emergency department at The Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, NJ, a Level 1 trauma center, could not make it through the department’s orientation program and left within a year. The new grads who left reported feeling a lack of adequate support and preparation. To stop the revolving door of having to continually recruit new nurses, the department created a mentoring program.

The mentors, who volunteer their time, are nurses that have been at the hospital for at least three years and have ED experience. After deciding to become a mentor, nurses fill out an application. Mentors then go through a training session where they learn techniques to help new nurses navigate the waters in the ED.

Use the 10 steps the hospital created to coach mentors at your facility. Remind them to:

1. Remember what it was like to be a novice
2. Acknowledge the presence of the new nurse
3. Openly discuss a plan
4. Remain with them through thick and thin
5. Assist them in critical thinking development
6. Provide them with insight into the chain of command
7. Remain positive
8. Remain aware of your influence and behave accordingly
9. Befriend them
10. Be a good listener

Source: The Staff Educator, May 2007, HCPro, Inc.

Editor’s note: Do you have a best practice that you would like to share? E-mail your best practice to associate editor Cameran Erny at cerny@hcpro.com and see your name in print!

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