Angela Barron McBride, PhD, RN, FAAN, FNAP

Distinguished Professor and University Dean Emerita

Indiana University School of Nursing
Goals for Webinar
Review the meaning of mentoring in 21
st

century
Discuss what we currently know about
peer mentoring, and address questions
that have surfaced in first year of peer-
mentoring program
Decide on improvements that need to be
made in peer-mentoring program
Overview of Presentation:
Mentoringa historical perspective
Mentoringa 21
st
-century view
Building a mentoring culture
Peer mentoring

mentorship and sponsorship are essential
for the integration of the scholarly role in the
self

May, Meleis, & Winstead-Fry, 1982, p. 22
Mentoring

Mentoring refers to the broad range of
developmental relationships whereby
more experienced individuals work to
promote the careers of less experienced
individuals
Mentoring over the course of a career
takes many formsguiding, advising,
facilitating, recommending, challenging,
supporting, coaching, sponsoring, and
so forth
A Historical Perspective

Many now-famous nurses were encouraged by
mentors to develop professionallyFlorence
Nightingale, Linda Richards, Mary Adelaide Nutting,
Annie Goodrich (Fields, 1991)
However, many nurses have traditionally thought if
I went through this, you should toan approach
that is, to say the least, non-generative
Mentors often described in quasi-magical, perhaps
even romantic, termsthe senior person sees in
junior person self at a younger age and thereby
wants to help individual blossom



Mentoring historically provided to men during
their formative years (20-45), ending with
BOOMbecoming ones own man (Levinson et
al., 1978)after which you start serving as a
mentor rather than needing one
Women and minorities disadvantaged because
of prevailing belief that mentor and mentee
needed to be alike, and dearth of women and
minorities in senior positions
Historically, cross-gender mentoring
complicated by romantic innuendo



Mentoring: Paradigm Shifts
20
th
Century

21
st
Century

A nicety

Prompted by mentors
generosity of spirit
Instinctive kindness
Top-down approach
Mentor=like mentee
Only one and one-to-one

Early in career


A professional
responsibility
Expectation of
organizational culture
Learned behavior
Reciprocal relationship
Mentorlike mentee
Multiple mentors and
many forms
Throughout career


The Goal of Mentoring:
Leadership Development

Benners From Novice to Expert
confirmed that one is not fully developed
at licensure
Formal education isnt enough to help
you get prepared to meet professional
demands over the course of a career

You need mentoring whenever you are
undergoing a major transition and moving
into unfamiliar territory
Leadership implies full career development,
not only achieving licensure and certification,
but learning to be a preceptor, educator,
committee chair, researcher, administrator,
author, reviewer, board member and so forth
If nurses are going to exert inter-
professional leadership, then having
nurse mentors isnt enough
Over the course of a career, you learn
by mentoring others

Building A Mentoring Culture


The only way nurses will be able to exert the
transformational leadership expected of them by
the various IOM reports is to ensure that
leadership is mentored at every career stage
The only way organizations will become the
learning communities that they increasingly
seek to be is through establishing a mentoring
culture
Mentoringvalued and rewarded institutionally
Mentoringthe key to successor preparation
In a mentoring culture, mentoring will take
many forms
Peer mentoring (Glass & Walter, 2000)
Alumni/ae mentoring
One-to-one formal relationships, shaped by an
individual development plan (IDP)
Committee mentoring, e.g., a small group of
senior faculty help a junior faculty member
prepare for promotion/tenure
Nominating individuals for programs that provide
leadership opportunities

Creating mentoring structures, e.g., orientation
programs that extend over the first year rather
than just the first few weeks, journal clubs, brown
bag exchanges about teaching strategies, writing
groups, programming on dossier preparation for
tenure-probationary faculty, programming and
socialization experiences geared to the particular
concerns of minorities and men in nursing,
university-wide programs for new department
chairs and deans
Contracting for an external mentor (Mundt, 2001)
Distance mentoring via e-mail, phone calls, skype


Beware the dangers of negative mentoring (Elby
et al., 2000)
Lack of interest/commitment
Unrealistic expectations
Controlling behaviors
Queen Bee behaviorsinappropriate delegation;
using mentees labor/ideas for own purposes; taking
inappropriate credit for mentees work
Personal-professional enmeshment
Be aware of the role SES status may play in the
needs mentees have, e.g., not knowing how to
dress for some occasions or dealing with the
mysteries of cutlery
Understand that in mentoring others you do not
lose but gain advantageexpanding your
reputation beyond your personal abilities,
creating threads of connection that can
advance your work, ensuring your own staying
power
Helping others achieve regional, national
and/or international reputation is an
undervalued part of mentoring; it is important to
remember that the issue is less writing a letter
of support to help an individual compete
successfully for some honor and more getting
the profession the recognition it deserves

Building an effective mentoring culture requires
that all concerned know how to give criticism in
an ego-enhancing fashion and how to take
criticism as the key to professional growth
Be specific and considerate
The focus of feedback should be on learning, as
opposed to correcting discrete performance
Avoid attributing poor performance to internal causes
that cannot be easily changed
Use and more than but in linking two points
Ask the person If you had to do it all over again, what
would you do differently?
Some Characteristics of A Good
Mentor
Sets clear goals, building on an initial
assessment
Schedules regular meetings (meeting only
when there is a problem is problem solving not
mentoring)
Encourages and models good communication
Appreciates individual differences
Facilitates networking
Celebrates achievements
Some Characteristics of A
Good Mentee
Is considerate
Shows appreciation
Doesnt spend the rest of his or her
career assuming that helpfulness only
goes in one direction
Pays it forward by mentoring others

Mentoring in RWJF Nurse Faculty
Scholars Program
Primary mentoringsenior individual within school of
nursing who helps the scholar understand how to be
effective within culture of that university and college
Research mentoringsenior individual within home
university, but preferably outside of nursing, who
helps the scholar develop program of research and
embed that nursing-generated problem within larger
research context
National mentoringsenior nurse scientist not at
home institution who helps person think larger
thoughts (beyond confines of own university)
Peer mentoringinteractions within and across
cohorts provide support and opportunities for
engaging across institutional boundaries
Peer Mentoring
A developmental relationship with the
clear purpose of supporting an
individual to achieve her/his
professional goals
Peer mentoring, not a substitute for
faculty mentoring, but a complement
Teaches collegiality
Peer vs. Faculty Mentoring
Peer Mentoring Faculty Mentoring
Mentor is only slightly
more senior/experienced
Horizontal relationship
Results of relationship
not graded
Emphasis on forging
scholarly identity


Mentor appreciably more
senior/experienced
Hierarchical
Output of relationship
formally evaluated
Emphasis on set
outcomes
In your own experience, do these
distinctions hold?
In what other ways does the peer
mentor role differ from the
BAGNC faculty mentor role?
Should the peer mentor and faculty
mentor communicate with each
other? If so, how? When?
What should one do if the mentee seeks
advice about something that is in conflict
with the BAGNC faculty member?
Benefits to Mentor
Gains from the energy and enthusiasm
of the scholar
Discussions with scholar may bring new
insights into some aspect of mentors
research
It is personally and professionally
gratifying to teach others what one has
learned and to help them advance
towards satisfying careers

Benefits to Mentee
Offers the been there and done that
support that family members and friends
dont know how to give and faculty mentors
may be too removed to give
Can help the individual problem solve
without the inexperienced person having
performance anxiety
Provides tips that can only be gained from
experience, e.g., around time management
and dealing with writers block

Components of Successful
Peer Mentoring
Confidentiality
Regular meetings
Expectations specified on both sides, e.g.,
around professional development,
emotional support, career planning,
enhancement of personal awareness,
skills building, a shared project
Success criteria
Relationship can end without
recriminations if not good fit
How did you initiate the peer mentoring
relationship?
What did you decide that your role as
peer mentor should be?
Did the role evolve over time? How?
What do you think the peer mentors role
should be after the formal peer
mentoring period? Do you intend to stay
in contact?
Learning from The First
Year
How should we continue to match
mentor with mentee?
Do you think that expectations and/or
procedures should be formalized in
some additional way for claritys sake?
Is program addressing what it was
meant to tackle?