Affiliations

Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center

Presentation Notes

Professional Development poster presentation at Empowering Nursing Excellence: Recognizing the Value and Impact of Nurses, Advocate Health Midwest Region Nursing Research & Professional Development Conference 2023; November 15, 2023; virtual.

Abstract

Background/Introduction: Mentoring is important in preparing nursing students to work in the complex health care work environment. A nurse’s personal and professional development is impacted through mentoring; however, the traditional clinical mentor and environment are not always conducive to the full mentoring relationship capacity.

Objective: The Bridge to Practice program was initiated in Fall 2022 as a partnership between a quaternary medical center site and local university to pair second year nursing students with experienced nurses to explore the reality of work environment, specialty practice settings, and mentorship. Information sessions are held monthly over nine months and lead by mentors for the whole cohort on topic areas relevant to transition to practice and compliment didactic content from the university.

Evaluation: Mentees complete midpoint and post surveys regarding program evaluation and opportunities for improvement. Recruitment data is tracked for mentees and retention for mentors. Additionally, mentors complete a pre and post professional quality of life scale and program completion evaluation.

Results: The first cohort consisted of n=16 mentor/mentee pairs. The majority (93%) of mentees and the mentors (94%) reported that the program was impactful on their future career in nursing. While for the mentors 81% felt that the experience was impactful to their nursing practice and 81% felt it impacted their commitment to stay within the organization.

Conclusions: The first cohort of the program positively impacted the organizations, mentors, and mentees. Cohort 2 is scheduled to begin in Fall 2023 and future recruitment and retention data, and program evaluation will continue to be evaluated for return on investment and program development.

Document Type

Poster

Publication Date

11-15-2023


 

Share

COinS
 
Nov 15th, 12:00 AM

Bridge to practice: Program initiation and evaluation

Background/Introduction: Mentoring is important in preparing nursing students to work in the complex health care work environment. A nurse’s personal and professional development is impacted through mentoring; however, the traditional clinical mentor and environment are not always conducive to the full mentoring relationship capacity.

Objective: The Bridge to Practice program was initiated in Fall 2022 as a partnership between a quaternary medical center site and local university to pair second year nursing students with experienced nurses to explore the reality of work environment, specialty practice settings, and mentorship. Information sessions are held monthly over nine months and lead by mentors for the whole cohort on topic areas relevant to transition to practice and compliment didactic content from the university.

Evaluation: Mentees complete midpoint and post surveys regarding program evaluation and opportunities for improvement. Recruitment data is tracked for mentees and retention for mentors. Additionally, mentors complete a pre and post professional quality of life scale and program completion evaluation.

Results: The first cohort consisted of n=16 mentor/mentee pairs. The majority (93%) of mentees and the mentors (94%) reported that the program was impactful on their future career in nursing. While for the mentors 81% felt that the experience was impactful to their nursing practice and 81% felt it impacted their commitment to stay within the organization.

Conclusions: The first cohort of the program positively impacted the organizations, mentors, and mentees. Cohort 2 is scheduled to begin in Fall 2023 and future recruitment and retention data, and program evaluation will continue to be evaluated for return on investment and program development.

 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.