Bridging the Gap: Nurse Mentorship Program

High-quality, effective mentorship can be a crucial and valuable tool in recruiting, retaining, and supporting nurses\u27 success, especially novice registered nurses. In the current healthcare environment, growth and development of nursing staff is essential to maintain quality outcomes. Mentorship programs can create a unique environment that facilitates educational opportunities for both the novice and expert registered nurse. Nursing leaders and organizations can make lasting impacts through mentoring relationships. Through effective mentorship, nurses can positively impact healthcare organization, improve job satisfaction, promote professional development, and empower themselves. Even more important is that mentoring can result in improved nursing care, high-quality healthcare, and improved patient outcomes. Watson\u27s theory of human caring provides a framework for the mentorship project that guides thc mentoring relationship. This project explores the concept of mentoring novice nurses on an intensive care unit and presents a mentorship model based on a caring philosophy. A 12-month mentorship program was designed for novice intensive care unit nurscs following their orientation, consisting of monthly meetings between the mentee and mentor focusing on the mentee\u27s identified needs. The mentorship program was evaluated after completion of the 1-year program