MENTORING IN THE CAREER DEVELOPMENT OF HOSPITAL STAFF NURSES: A STUDY OF PERCEPTIONS (NURSES).
Contributors: Boston University.
Published: 1992
Number of pages: 207
Subjects: Education, Administration.; Health Sciences, Nursing.; Health Sciences, Education.
Description: The purposes of this study were to identify perceived mentoring experiences of staff nurses working in various hospital settings, to describe mentoring and career development as viewed by staff nurses and to develop a model that depicts mentoring and emergent variables.

Verbatim audiotaped interviews of 37 female hospital staff nurses were performed. Nurses were selected from 4 hospitals in 2 states. Additionally, verbatim interviews of their female nurse managers were audiotaped. Hospital and nursing organization documents, including mission statements, philosophy statements, and job descriptions were scanned for key descriptive phrases applicable to mentoring.

Using the qualitative methodology of grounded theory, data bits were analyzed and the core category of mentoring evolved. Three categories of mentoring emerged as well as a structural and process model of mentoring at the staff nurse level.

A structural model of perceived mentoring influentials included the environment, people, and events. Within the environment, 4 constructs emerged: barriers, non-barriers, expectations, and rewards. For people, both primary and secondary influentials were noted. For influential events, the constructs included career incidents, clinical-patient situations, and socio-political-cultural circumstances.

A process model also emerged from the data. It contained 4 phases. Phase I included mentoring characteristics; Phase II included dimensions of mentoring; Phase III encompassed mentoring strategies provided to nurses by others in the mentoring process; and Phase IV career development outcomes. Additional themes from data provided by perceptions of nurse managers and analysis of selected hospital documents are included in the data findings. Major findings included: (a) mentoring for hospital staff nurses is a multidimensional process involving events as well as people as mentoring influentials, (b) the primary influence of peers and nurse managers in the mentoring of staff nurses, (c) mentoring influences were demonstrated through both positive and negative data as perceived by staff nurses, (d) staff nurses perceived mentoring to be a large part of their career development, and (e) no difference was found for teaching hospitals versus non-teaching hospitals regarding how mentoring was perceived. The dissertation concludes with a discussion of findings, conclusions, specific practice recommendations and recommendations for future research.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-01, Section: A, page: 0026.

Thesis (ED.D.)--BOSTON UNIVERSITY, 1992.

School code: 0017.