Mentorship: A Guide for Mentors
Mentoring is the art and science of guiding another through the purposeful actions of leading and directing to a new place of cognition.
(Metcalfe, 2016).
At South Eastern Sydney Local Health District, mentors play a crucial role in the development of our leaders for the next generation. That's why our facilities across the district have opportunities for mentors to support our emerging leaders to achieve their professional goals. We have developed a toolkit to support mentors to make the most of the experience for both the mentee and mentor.
Nurses and midwives share their experiences of being both mentor and mentee.
Mentorship is a mutually beneficial, non-evaluative relationship between a more experienced person (mentor) and a less experienced person (mentee) that is caring, collaborative, and respectful (Rohatinsky, Harding & Carriere, 2017). It often results in the mentor sharing information, advice, knowledge or training to the mentee. Mentorship can be helpflul to support an individual to achieve a goal, complete a project or facilitate a transition to a different tole or an expanded level of responsibility (Gruber-Page, 2016)
Evidence shows that leadership development is enhanced when an emerging nurse or midwife leader has the support or guidance from a structured mentorship relationship. The evidence also demonstrates that mentors recieve key learnings and development aswell.
Many studies have demonstrated that mentors benefit from the partnerships through increased personal fulfillment, career success and satisfaction, increased creativity, and learning and development of leadership skills, while mentees can experience increased socialization and acceptance in the organization, decreased stress, increased confidence and competence, and assistance with career planning and psychosocial support
(Rohatinsky, Harding & Carriere, 2017).
Anyone with experience in the nursing and midwifery profession can be a mentor!
Consider what strengths, skills and experiences you could draw on to support the development of an emerging nursing and midwife.
You may have been approached by a more junior member of staff and have never been a mentor formally before. You can use the tools and resources here to get started!
You also maybe considering how you could be matched with a mentee. You can contact your manager or facility based Nurse Manager of Education to help pair you with a mentee who might be looking for some guidance and advice.
Once you have decided to become a mentor, there are lots of tools and resources to help you get started. It can help by understanding where mentorship fits in with other supervision relationships. The Supervision Umbrella Model illustrates how mentorship partnerships are part of the contiuum to support professional development.
As you undertake your partnership with your mentee, you might consider your own goals and what you would like to gain ffrom the relationship. To help reflect on your own goals, you can use the Mentorship Development template before your first meeting with your mentee.
To help guide your first meeting conversation, watch the video below a first meeting scenario.
A real play of the first meeting between a mentor and mentee
Here are some more guides to help you get started.
Getting Started: A guide for your first meeting
SESLHD Mentoring Toolkit (People & Culture 2020)
Enabling & Appreciative Questions
The Superguide: A Supervision Contiuum for Nurses & Midwives (HETI) provides an over view of the types of supervison available to our nurses and midwives. Mentorship is a part of a suite of options to support the development of our people.
Finally, after a period of time, it may be useful to pause to reflect on your partnership up to this point. This can be done in partnership with your mentee and can help to review the original purpose of the partnership, as well as goals and achievements thus far. You can use the Mentoring Partnership Review template to guide the process.
Prince of Wales Hospital:
Elizabeth Schlossberger- Nurse Manager, Nursing Education and Research Unit (NERU)
Royal Hospital for Women:
Annette Wright - Nurse Manager, Clinical Practice & Professional Development
St George Hospital
Kristin Mills - Nurse Exeuctive Support Manager
The Sutherland Hospital:
Robin Girle - Nurse Manager, Practice and Workforce Capability Service
Sydney Hospital & Sydney Eye Hospital
Ann Hodge - Nurse Manager, Operational Nurse Support
War Memorial Hospital
Georgia Ellis - Clinical Nurse Educator
Calvary Hospital
Christine Harris - Nurse Manager, Education
Mental Health
Ben Chidester - Nurse Educator, Workforce Capabilities
Emma McIntosh - Clinical Nurse Educator
Garrawarra Centre
Cathy Wynn - Nurse Manager, Education
Gruber-Page, M. (2016). The Value of Mentoring in Nursing: An Honor and a Gift. Oncology Nursing Forum, 43(4), 420–422.
Metcalfe S (2016) Educational Innovation: Collaborative Mentoring for Future Nursing Leaders, Creative Nursing, 16(4), 167.
Rohatinsky N, Harding K & Carriere T (2017) Nursing student peer mentorship: a review of the literature, Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning, 25(1), 61-77.