Strategies of an effective mentorship program for critical care nurses

Abstract

Healthcare organizations continue to experience difficulty retaining newly registered nurses. Mentoring programs are being incorporated as a strategy to retain professional nurses, especially in critical care areas of professional practice (Jakubik, 2007). The purpose of this study is to examine the relationships among quality, quantity, and the type of mentoring programs, and the benefits of mentoring for nurses who have participated in a mentoring program post graduation. The framework is Zey’s (1991) Mutual Benefits Model. The targeted population is registered nurses (RNs) with 1-5 years of professional experience. The expected sample is 200 registered nurses working in acute care hospitals. A demographic questionnaire will be administered along with the Caine Quality of Mentor Survey (Caine, 1989), and the Jakubik Mentoring Benefits Questionnaire (Jakubik, 2007). Study findings may benefit nurse staff development educators by identifying strategies to improve mentoring program.