Student evaluations of a year-long mentorship program: A quality improvement initiative
View/ Open
Author(s)
van Eps, Mary Ann
Cooke, Marie
Creedy, Debra K
Walker, Rachel
Year published
2006
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Mentoring is an important teaching-learning process in undergraduate nursing curricula. There are relatively few studies specifically evaluating nursing students' perceptions of mentorship. In the period 1999-2002, 39 students were mentored during a year-long program. This descriptive, exploratory study used a quality improvement framework informed by the Deming cycle of Plan, Do, Check and Act (Deming, W.E., 1982. Quality, Productivity and Competitive Position. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge) to evaluate the mentorship program from the students' perspective. Information was gathered through surveys, focus ...
View more >Mentoring is an important teaching-learning process in undergraduate nursing curricula. There are relatively few studies specifically evaluating nursing students' perceptions of mentorship. In the period 1999-2002, 39 students were mentored during a year-long program. This descriptive, exploratory study used a quality improvement framework informed by the Deming cycle of Plan, Do, Check and Act (Deming, W.E., 1982. Quality, Productivity and Competitive Position. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge) to evaluate the mentorship program from the students' perspective. Information was gathered through surveys, focus group discussions and interviews and analyzed to identify themes of responses. Identified themes were 'The doing of nursing', 'The thinking of nursing' and 'Being a nurse'. The study confirmed the value of mentorship in undergraduate nursing and highlighted the importance of skill competence as a basis for professional role identity by graduating students. The benefits of mentorship were derived from a long term, supportive relationship with the same registered nurse who was committed to the student's professional development.
View less >
View more >Mentoring is an important teaching-learning process in undergraduate nursing curricula. There are relatively few studies specifically evaluating nursing students' perceptions of mentorship. In the period 1999-2002, 39 students were mentored during a year-long program. This descriptive, exploratory study used a quality improvement framework informed by the Deming cycle of Plan, Do, Check and Act (Deming, W.E., 1982. Quality, Productivity and Competitive Position. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge) to evaluate the mentorship program from the students' perspective. Information was gathered through surveys, focus group discussions and interviews and analyzed to identify themes of responses. Identified themes were 'The doing of nursing', 'The thinking of nursing' and 'Being a nurse'. The study confirmed the value of mentorship in undergraduate nursing and highlighted the importance of skill competence as a basis for professional role identity by graduating students. The benefits of mentorship were derived from a long term, supportive relationship with the same registered nurse who was committed to the student's professional development.
View less >
Journal Title
Nurse Education Today
Volume
26
Issue
6
Copyright Statement
© 2006 Elsevier. This is the author-manuscript version of this paper. Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher. Please refer to the journal's website for access to the definitive, published version.
Subject
Nursing
Curriculum and pedagogy
Midwifery