Mentoring, Job Satisfaction, and Intent to Stay of Novice Midwestern Hospital Staff Nurses

This investigation examined the relationship of mentoring, job satisfaction, and intent to stay of novice nurses, using the adapted framework or Hunt and Michael (1983). The sample consisted or novice Midwestern hospital staff nurses selected randomly from a listing provided by the Kansas State Board of Nursing of initial licenses granted by examination for the year 2003. Data were collected using Caine\u27s (1989) Quality of Mentoring Tool, Caine\u27s (1989) Job Satisfaction Survey, Price and Mueller’s (1982) Intent to Stay Tool, and the Schmidt Konen Demographic Tool. The questionnaire packet was sent to 327 novice staff nurses with a response rate of 41.9%, or the 137 responses. 69 met the inclusion criteria and were used for the analysis. Findings indicated that approximately half (N = 39) of the participants identified having a mentor. Pearson\u27s Product Moment Correlation was used to examine the relationship among mentoring, Job satisfaction and intCI1l 10 stay. Findings indicated that mentoring had a positive correlation with job satisfaction and a negative correlation with intent to stay. However, neither was statistically significant. This research substantiates the prevailing nursing literature regarding mentoring, job satisfaction and intent to stay of new graduate nurses (Hamilton. Murray. Lindholm, & Myers. 1989), novice nurse educators (Sullivan, 2001), and fails to support the findings of military researchers (Prevosto, 200 1; Yoder. 1992). In general, novice nurses were satisfied with their jobs but reported a low intent to stay in their current positions. This low intent to stay is an area of concern for nursing administration. Continued research into mentoring, job satisfaction and intent to stay is recommended