Nurses aren’t born knowing the ropes. Nor are they introduced to all the day-to-day minutiae and details that come with years of practicing the vocation. Mentoring for new nurses is the single best way to onboard new hires and familiarize new staff members with the ins-and-outs of working in a specific medical facility.
Nurturing through mentoring for new nurses is beneficial in so many ways. The experienced nurse can take on the role of expert, advising and helping the new nurse to adjust and feel comfortable, while providing guidance when needed. For the practiced nurse who assumes the role of mentor, the relationship can help you learn new skills and brush up on important skills that you may need to revisit.
For the medical facility mentoring for new nurses has a very positive impact. Not only does the mentorship program offer the advantage of deeper orientation, but to assign a trusted advisor to help the new hire, or new nurse, with understanding and implementing policies and procedures reinforces the onboarding process so that the new nurse feels confident in their charge. Mentoring for new nurses has also proven an effective way to reduce turnover and retain quality staff.
Here are more ways in which mentoring for new nurses benefits recent hires, seasoned employees, and your medical facility:
Mentoring for New Nurses
When you are new to any job you have many questions and concerns. Are you following protocol? How should you handle unique situations? and, most importantly, are you doing a good job? With mentoring for new nurses you won’t need to feel alone. You have a trusted colleague in whom you can confide and someone who can offer guidance along the way, until you become the seasoned professional.
Learning the ropes can be overwhelming to the new nurse. With the advantage of a mentor, you’re able to defer to their experienced judgment and instructions, certainly, but you also build the confidence you need to become an independent member of the staff. Your mentor is your greatest ally and your best source of knowledge when it comes to adjusting to your new position.
Advantage to The Mentor
Most large medical facilities have mentoring for new nurses in a formal capacity. Your HR department may be working with administration in bringing a mentoring program to your facility. If you’re interested in mentoring for new nurses and consider yourself a good mentor-candidate then by all means go for it! It could be a fantastic move on your part and propel you into a role as nurse leader.
In the role of mentor you’ll reignite your passion for the job. As a mentor you’ll gain a fresh new perspective from the viewpoint of your mentee. The mentorship role allows for more experienced nurses to play a significant role in the development of healthcare. You’ll play a key part in the delivery of patient care as a concept and ultimately help to create a stronger healthcare system-all mighty impressive and appealing advantages to the mentorship program.
Before you offer up your services mentoring new nurses, ask yourself the flowing questions:
- Do I possess the patience I’ll need to mentor a new nurse?
- Do I have the time to devote to mentoring?
- Am I prepared to share both my successes and failures with a new nurse?
- Am I confident in my patent care experience, clinical expertise, knowledge, and wisdom to act as an effective and positive role model?
You’ll be acting as the new nurse’s guide, helping them to navigate the professional and social waters of their new environment. Your mentorship doesn’t end with your shift, nor does it only encompass the professional side of your facility. You’ll need to convey such information as when to make the coffee, where to sit at meetings, whose job it is to go on a lunch run, and the like. Failing to mentor your mentee is all areas of onboarding can open your new charge up to criticism and create an impediment early on.
How Your Facility Can Benefit
Mentoring for new nurses can have a positive impact on your bottom line. You’ll need to spend less time formally training your new nurses and allow them to gain experience on the floor, under the watchful eye of their mentor. When you implement a mentorship program you are developing nurse leaders whom you can promote from within, reducing the cost of recruiting elsewhere.
With your mentorship program you are reducing turnover, a high cost event in itself, and you’re helping to stem the flow of quality nursing staff from your facility. Additionally, by utilizing your best, brightest, and most experienced nurses in the role of mentor you’re creating a ready team of leaders to help prevent a nursing shortage in your medical facility. Mentoring is a win-win-win for all parties.
Mentoring for new nurses is a highly effective approach to welcoming and empowering nursing staff. Mentoring can result in competent nurses who use their insight and critical thinking skills to provide the finest in quality care for their patients. Mentoring boosts the confidence of new nurses and seasoned professionals alike. The end result is a profession which regards patient care as it’s ultimate goal, and promotes camaraderie in the achievement of that goal.
