Graduate nurses' evaluation of mentorship: Development of a new tool
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Author(s)
Tiew, Lay Hwa
Koh, Catherine SL
Creedy, Debra K
Tam, WSW
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2017
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Show full item recordAbstract
Aim: Develop and test an instrument to measure graduate-nurses' perceptions of a structured mentorship
program.
Background: New graduate nurses may experience difficulties in the transition from student to practitioner.
Mentoring is commonly used to support graduates. However, there is a lack of published tools measuring
graduate nurses' perceptions of mentorship. As mentoring is resource intensive, development and testing of a
validated tool are important to assist in determining program effectiveness.
Methods: A pretest-posttest interventional design was used. Following a critical review of literature and content
experts' ...
View more >Aim: Develop and test an instrument to measure graduate-nurses' perceptions of a structured mentorship program. Background: New graduate nurses may experience difficulties in the transition from student to practitioner. Mentoring is commonly used to support graduates. However, there is a lack of published tools measuring graduate nurses' perceptions of mentorship. As mentoring is resource intensive, development and testing of a validated tool are important to assist in determining program effectiveness. Methods: A pretest-posttest interventional design was used. Following a critical review of literature and content experts' input, the 10-item National University Hospital Mentorship Evaluation (NUH ME) instrument was tested with a convenience sample of 83 graduate nurses. Psychometric tests included internal reliability, stability, content validity, and factor analysis. Changed scores were evaluated using paired samples t-test. Results: Seventy-three graduates (88%) out of a possible 83 completed the pre-and post-program survey. Internal reliability was excellent with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.92. Test-retest reliability was stable over time (ICC = 0.81). Exploratory factor analysis supported a 1-factor solution explaining 58.2% of variance. Paired samples t-test showed statistical significance between the pre- and post-program scores (p < 0.001). Conclusions: The NUH-ME measure was found to be valid and reliable. Confirmatory Factor Analysis of the tool with different groups of nursing graduates is required. Mentorship programs can be an effective recruitment and retention strategy, but are also resource intensive. Measuring new graduates' perceptions of mentoring contributes to program relevance in addressing their personal, professional and clinical skill development needs. As mentoring engages a diverse range of mentors, feedback through measurement may also positively alter organizational learning culture.
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View more >Aim: Develop and test an instrument to measure graduate-nurses' perceptions of a structured mentorship program. Background: New graduate nurses may experience difficulties in the transition from student to practitioner. Mentoring is commonly used to support graduates. However, there is a lack of published tools measuring graduate nurses' perceptions of mentorship. As mentoring is resource intensive, development and testing of a validated tool are important to assist in determining program effectiveness. Methods: A pretest-posttest interventional design was used. Following a critical review of literature and content experts' input, the 10-item National University Hospital Mentorship Evaluation (NUH ME) instrument was tested with a convenience sample of 83 graduate nurses. Psychometric tests included internal reliability, stability, content validity, and factor analysis. Changed scores were evaluated using paired samples t-test. Results: Seventy-three graduates (88%) out of a possible 83 completed the pre-and post-program survey. Internal reliability was excellent with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.92. Test-retest reliability was stable over time (ICC = 0.81). Exploratory factor analysis supported a 1-factor solution explaining 58.2% of variance. Paired samples t-test showed statistical significance between the pre- and post-program scores (p < 0.001). Conclusions: The NUH-ME measure was found to be valid and reliable. Confirmatory Factor Analysis of the tool with different groups of nursing graduates is required. Mentorship programs can be an effective recruitment and retention strategy, but are also resource intensive. Measuring new graduates' perceptions of mentoring contributes to program relevance in addressing their personal, professional and clinical skill development needs. As mentoring engages a diverse range of mentors, feedback through measurement may also positively alter organizational learning culture.
View less >
Journal Title
Nurse Education Today
Volume
54
Copyright Statement
© 2017 Elsevier. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, providing that the work is properly cited.
Subject
Nursing
Nursing not elsewhere classified
Curriculum and pedagogy