At Baptist, mentors play an important role in teaching,
coaching and advising nurses as they are integrated into their units and
develop their practice.
As part of the orientation process, new nurses are assigned official preceptors who guide them
through the initial development phase. A mentor does not replace the preceptor’s role, but is assigned as "official" orientation
ends. The mentor does not serve as the new nurse’s manager either.
Webster's defines a mentor as "an experienced and trusted advisor." A mentoring
relationship allows the new member to work with an experienced person
and obtain more personalized feedback and support in pursuit of
improvement.
The mentor’s goals are to structure education and clinical practice
processes to meet objectives for professional growth and development
by:
- Expanding the new nurse’s knowledge base
- Assisting in development of a new nurse’s clinical proficiency
- Developing each new nurse’s autonomy and self-esteem as a professional
Each mentoring relationship is different as new unit members have
different levels of enthusiasm, skill and commitment. As a result, a
mentor will:
- Increase knowledge and skills of new members
- Increase comfort level of new members
- Enhance self-esteem and self-confidence of new members
- Observe skilled and professional role models, and promote development of new members
- Influence behavior to achieve job satisfaction, knowledge and improved competency and skills
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