Overview:
Mentoring at its heart is a process in which a wise and trusted counselor or teacher, known as a mentor, provides sage advice to a less experienced individual, known as a mentee.
Mentoring has been acknowledged and well documented as an effective process to support the development of nurses at all levels. With the sweeping changes occurring in health care, mentoring can help new and experienced nurse leaders navigate the complexity of the nurse leader role. Developing and maintaining formal mentorship programs to address the developmental needs of nurse leaders should be a priority for nursing but can also be challenging to sustain.
A Statewide Mentorship Program (MP) was developed by ONLNJ in 2010 to provide an opportunity for nurses throughout the state to be mentored by experienced nursing colleagues. A qualitative study was conducted to understand the lived experience of mentors and mentees who participated in this statewide program with four themes emerging from the focus group interviews: 1) Mentorship program as a lifeline for the mentee; 2) Moving from reluctance to reliance; 3) Instilled courage; 4) Gaining confidence. For the mentees, the program was reported to be "like a gift" and helped them to learn more about themselves and helped to reduce self-doubt. Involvement in the mentorship program instilled courage and provided them with confidence. Mentors helped them to support their own choices and decisions to become more effective leaders.
Mentorship programs are effective mechanisms to support leaders or prospective leaders in their roles in an often chaotic and challenging health care environment. The intent of the ONLNJ Mentorship program is to facilitate relationship building for personal and professional growth of ONLNJ members at all levels.
Please join ONLNJ for this nationally acclaimed and awarding winning education program:
Cohort VIII: Mentoring New Jersey's Current and Future Leaders: A Statewide Nurse Mentorship Program
This is a Two-Part Education Program (total 6.0 credits):
1) In-person meeting on March 7, 2025 to be hosted by ONLNJ (2.5 credits)
2) Nurse Builders Mentoring E Courses - Access Available 1/31/25 - 5/1/25. Once enrolled, you will have access to your e-courses for 90 days (3.5 credits).
a) Users will have access to the e-course modules for 90 days from a laptop, desktop, or mobile device an unlimited number of times to watch and re-watch particular sections or the entire course,
b) Each user will create their own account and be able to access anytime,
c) Upon course completion of each e-course, the user will receive a contact hour certificate from Nurse Builders that can be printed or saved for total contact hours of 3.5,
d) Nurse Builders eLearning content:
· Mentoring Foundations for Leadership
· Skills Training for Mentors
· Skills Training for Mentees
e) Participants are required to watch all three modules before attending the March 7th in-person session.
Learner Outcome:
At the conclusion of this virtual session, the learner will gain knowledge on the Statewide Nurse Mentorship Program and will self-report confidence on a Likert scale of (1-5) in building a strong helping Mentor/Mentee Relationship as monitored by the ONLNJ Mentorship Program Checklist and utilization of the Mentoring Toolkit, which may be transferable to their practice and/or organization.
Eighty percent of the learners will report after six months that they have gained a strong helping Mentor/Mentee Relationship, as monitored by the Mentorship Program Checklist and utilization, that will assist them to practice effectively in their practice setting.
Target Audience: The Mentorship Program benefits any nurse, practicing as a bedside nurse, advanced practitioner or nurse leader.
Continuing Education Credits:
This activity has been submitted to the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses for approval to award contact hours. The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses is Accredited as an approver of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation.
