In an effort to keep new nurses from becoming overwhelmed and to learn from the pros, MVH uses a formal mentoring and preceptor process. These programs pair newly hired graduate nurses or nurses hired from other organizations with experienced nurse professionals. Considering their busy schedule, it is helpful that the new nurses do not have to seek out guidance on their own.

Mentoring programs are different than preceptor programs and each situation and department may require a slightly different type of mentoring or preceptorship. Mentoring involves a pairing between an experienced nurse professional and a student nurse while preceptor programs are designed to ensure that the new nurse or newly hired nurse has the technical skills to do the job. A formal program provides real-world practical, as well as confidential, advice and counsel for the newly hired nurses.

Mentoring or preceptoring another nurse is a professional means of passing along knowledge, skills, behaviors. In a positive sense, the process gives the professional nurse an opportunity to create a legacy for the future by moving others up the ladder of success. Those nurses are willing to share expertise and organizational insight in order to prepare their charges for greater performance, productivity or achievement in the future. Mentoring presents a golden opportunity for experienced nurses to reap intrinsic rewards as they witness the growth and development of other nurses based on a legacy which they themselves have created.

Experienced RNs say new nurses deserve capable mentors to help ease the transition into the workplace. Sherry Watkins, an RN on the 5-West unit of Monongahela Valley Hospital said, “I was a student once. I do it because I get great satisfaction from it, have a love for nursing and here at MVH, we work as a team. The graduate nurses need the hands on experience and nurses who have transferred from another facility need to learn our culture and how we care for our patients at MVH.”

How important is mentoring in nursing? As many nurses have long known, it's vital. And not everyone can do it.

"The one thing about mentoring in nursing is that it is so complex," said Mary Lou Murt, RN, senior vice president of nursing at MVH. "It's not an easy job. You need to help those nurses grow up in the profession or learn a new culture at MVH," she said. "If we're not going to nurture our own, who is going to nurture them?"

A mentor does more than teach skills and facts, she said. True mentors serve as guardians who "bring someone into a team to become a complete member of the team," she said.

Kelly Macheska, RN, is both a mentor and a preceptor in the Emergency Department at MVH. “Communication is the key,” she said. “We educate on policy and procedures, medication administration and guidelines. On the first day our nurses have to complete a scavenger hunt. It helps them to find where things are and to immediately meet the staff,” she said.

It is important that mentors understand that their role is to teach, coach, and share wisdom; to listen and advise; to help motivate and increase job satisfaction; and to provide clinical expertise. “We continually give feedback and encouragement,” Kelly said.

Good mentors don't preach, they listen, say nurses who have both mentored and been mentored themselves. They don't advise, they suggest various possibilities. Most of all, they don't smother.

“Not everyone can be a good mentor,” Murt said. “But good mentors and preceptors understand that the new nurses will quickly become peers and some will go on to mentor others. The relationship has to be built on trust, integrity, and respect,” she said.

“Qualities of a good nurse mentor include personal integrity, having a strategic vision of the profession, and a willingness to share experiences, viewpoints, and life experiences. Our mentors and preceptors have great people skills and a solid network of relationships that will be helpful to the newly hired nurse.”

"Mentors should be compassionate souls, who can comfort, show support and guide, even beyond what all of our nurses normally extend to our patients," Murt said.