Confirming mentorship.

Full Abstract

BACKGROUND: Mentorship is related to nurses' success in nursing practice linked to professionalism, nursing quality improvement and self-confidence. AIM: To elucidate mentorship of recently registered nurses' view of themselves with regard to their development of nursing competencies by means of the Sympathy-Acceptance-Understanding-Competence (SAUC) model for confirming mentorship. METHODS: Questionnaires, personal interviews and focus group interviews were used for evaluation 2 years after the completion of a year of mentorship, the subjects being eight nurses. FINDINGS: The study showed that novice nurses evaluated their mentors as confirming, which is understood as a key factor for novice nurses' positively reinforced self-relation (perception of themselves) and self-knowledge linked to improved competencies in nursing practice such as more secure and motivated to nurse (S-phase), increased capacity to verbalize nursing situations (A-phase) and to reflect upon and evaluate patient situations based on patients' unique identities as individuals (U-phase), and improved abilities to support patients' own resources as individuals from a more holistic view and to establish collaboration with other professionals. CONCLUSION: Mentorship enabled novice nurses to nurse in a more reflective and holistic way, and their positively reinforced self-relation may be understood as a crucial ingredient for maintaining quality standards in nursing in the future.

Author information

Author/s: Ronsten, Barbro (B); Andersson, Ewa (E); Gustafsson, Barbro (B);

Affiliation: Visby Hospital, Sweden.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: Journal of nursing management (J Nurs Manag), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2005-Jul; vol 13 (issue 4) : pp 312-21

Dates: Created 2005/06/10; Completed 2005/08/30;

PMID: 15946170, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: )

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