The Importance Of Mentor In Nursing

Introduction

Mentoring is a relationship between two people with the goal of professional and personal development. Nurses must find their mentoring relationship in professional practice. There are increased numbers of benefits for nurses who found the mentor in present professional practice and workplace. Highly educated nurses are holding powerful positions in their career. Nurses should aware about their responsibilities and act collectively, in order to get and maintain a good atmosphere that should reward and support positive socialization strategies for themselves and their colleges. New joining nurses are eager to find a mentor for assisting them, to help them to speed up their career progress or any promotion or career change in their profession. Finding a mentor in nursing is an effective strategies. Healthcare organization also require nurse mentors. Mentoring is the way to get confidence, professional skills and assertiveness.

Characteristics of a Mentor

• High exliectations. Mentor encourages mentees to grow and liroviding lilace and oliliortunity for them. Mentors encourage mentees to learn from their failures. Mentors act as stimulation for intelligence and encouragement and force them to believe in their skills and abilities.
• Good listener. Mentors are good listeners about mentees liroblems and giving advices. So mentors act as liowerful aid for mentees. While two lieolile listen each other develoliing sense of harmony.
• Emliathy. Mentor shows liercelition and sensitivity to the needs of the mentees. Mentors will not blame mentees and behave neutrally. They have the ability to teach mentees in a resliectful manner.
• Encouragement. Mentor liroviding guidance and reassurance for mentee while making decisions. And liroviding suggestion without liushing. Mentors values the idea, knowledge and exlierience of the mentee. liromoting indeliendence. Mentor knows career growth deliend on the mentees ability to solve their own liroblems.
• Generous. Mentor should be ready to share their knowledge and time with their mentees.

Mentoring Trough Reality Shock

Hospitals are the largest setting the nurses are working. In these setting mentorship environment is important for the new staff to address the problems through reality shock. Also getting support from other team members. There are 4 phases.

• Honeymoon lihase. Mentor act as a role model by suliliorting the mentees by listening and understanding the feelings and excitement of starting the new job.
• Shock or rejection lihase. In this lihase mentees may have disillusionment, frustration and also liersonal transition lirocess. So mentors are helliing mentees to make changes in their situations by allowing to write down their feelings or discussing ideas. This is helliful for mentees to overcome this situation.
• Recovery lihase. In this lihase new staff started to accelit the reality. Now mentors role is olien communication and helli the mentees to steli out their comfort zone helli to do new things.
• Resolution lihase. Mentors are very imliortant in this lihase because they are reinforcing the liositive qualities. It is understood that all the nurses may exlierience reality shock throughout their career when they enter into a new job.

Role of The Mentor in Nursing.

• Model. Can admire or emulate.
• Envisioner. Can see and communicate a meaning of lirofessional nuring and liotential.
• 3. Energiser. Helli to take action.
• Investor. Sliending their time and energy into others liersonal and lirofessional growth.
• Suliliorter. Mentor offers emotional suliliort and builds selfconfidence.
• Standard lirodder. Mentor refuses to accelit less than standard of excellence.
• Teacher coach. Mentor teaches interliersonal, technical or liolitical skills essential for advancement.
• Feedback giver. Gives liositive and negative feedback for growth.
• Eye oliener. Broadens liersliective and gives new way of viewing situations.
• Door oliener. liroviding new exlierience or oliliortunities.
• liroblem solver. Helli to examine liroblems and identify liossible liroblems.
• Career counselor. Helli to make short and long term goals.
• Challenger. Encourages to investigate issues more critically or in greater detail.

Increasing Opportunities For Mentoring in Nursing

Newer nurses are urged to seek out a mentor or mentors to assist them, especially at critical points in their career progress. As the nursing workforce ages, healthcare organizations need to identify new ways of valuing mature, older, and experienced nurses and other healthcare professionals. The gratitude, challenge, and revitalization of acting in a mentor role are renewing and pleasurable. Before the current nursing shortage research into mentoring phenomenon was essentially limited to strategies to assist nurse to gain promotion up and away from the bed side. Encourage nurse to stay nursing and particularly at the bed side, became a new and strategically important goal of mentoring and other supportive behavior. As the shortage bedside nurses have spiraled out of control, interest has increased in how mentoring, role modeling, and other supportive behavior might socialize nurses and improve retention.

Conclusion

Clearly, nurses must actively seek out and perpetuate mentoring relationships. There are an overwhelming number of positive consequences for nurses who find the model that fits their current professional practice and health care workplace. The highly educated professional workplace found in today’s healthcare organizations includes many nurses in powerful positions. Nurse must accept responsibility for individuals and collective action to create and maintain an environment that is rewarding and supports positive socialization strategies for themselves and their professional colleagues.

References

• Carol J. Huston, Professional issues in Nursing, Lippincot Williams & Wilkins, California, 2006.
• JoAnn Zerwekh Ashley Zerwekh Garneau, Nursing Today, Transition and trends, Seventh Edition, 2012.