Mentoring New Jersey's Current and Future Leaders

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 VII: Mentoring New Jersey's Current and Future Leaders: A Statewide Nurse Mentorship Program

Testimonials from previous program participants –

Question: Would you recommend this program, why/why not? –

• Absolutely!!! The Mentee/Mentor relationship helps you to grow professionally in your role. The Mentor is very supportive.

• Yes, I would definitely recommend this program. It is so valuable to connect with nurse leaders outside your own institution and in different roles.

• Definitely yes. Sometimes it takes another person to help guide and direct us towards the right path. This mentorship program achieves that.

• Yes, definitely! I think that the matching process was wonderful, and I really benefited from the connections that I made through my mentor.

• Yes, my mentor was wonderful and really helped me have an outsider perspective to difficult situations at work.

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 Lickert 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 6 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 nursing continuing professional development activity was approved by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, an accredited approver by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation. Approval refers to recognition of continuing education only and does not imply AACN or or ANCC approval or endorsement of the content of this educational activity.

Nursing Credits = 2.75 CEU

This is a Two-Part Education Program (total 6.25 credits):

1) Live Virtual Meeting on June 16, 2023 to be hosted by ONLNJ (2.75 credits)

2) Nurse Builders Mentoring E Courses - Access Available 5/1/23 - 8/31/23. Once enrolled, you will have access to your e-courses for 90 days or 8/31/23, whichever comes first (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 June 16 live virtual event.

NOTE: Term of Mentorship Period: The mentorship experience requires a one-year commitment in a formal mentor-mentee partnership.

For more information about the Mentoring Program, see the two peer-reviewed published articles attached.