Mentoring programs for student nurses

Double-Helix, BSN, RN · Oct 18, 2011

Great idea! My school had an awesome nursing student mentor program that I helped start!

I'm assuming you're from a two-year program, whereas mine was a four year, so it made a little difference in how we set up our programs/who we accepted as mentors, but the basic concepts are the same.

We tried a few different things with our mentor program. The first year we matched upper classman with freshman students. The upperclassmen reached out to them via email and explained the program and invited them to participate in events. This worked okay, but not many students participated and it didn't include sophomores or upper classmen who might need mentoring.

Second year, we didn't do any individual mentor/mentee matching. Instead, we focused on organizing groups and events that focused on the entire students. This had good results, but we realized that there was still not great awareness of the program and many people didn't feel comfortable going to a group where they didn't know anyone.

Third year, we did a combo of both. Our school has a mandatory intro class for freshman that is divided up by majors. The groups are pretty small, so we assigned 1-2 mentors to each class. The mentors went into the classes (one hour once a week) every week to help the instructor, offer support, and build a relationship with the students. We also had regular events and informational sessions to include the entire nursing body.

Here are some of the things that we did regularly:

1. At the beginning of the semester, at least one mentor would go into every class to introduce the mentoring program. (We targeted the classes that every freshman and junior had to take (Interventions for sophomores, med-surg for juniors, and Intro for freshman), so that everyone was greeted once. At this time, we also invited the students to ask or write down questions that they had about the program which we later compiled, answered, and posted as a document in our student email folder.

2. A Facebook group. We invited all nursing students to join our Facebook group where we posted information about upcoming events and frequently asked questions.

3. Registration information sessions: We had these before it was time to register for next semester's classes. We invited all students to come and ask questions about their courses. What electives do I need? Who's the best instructor for this class? We gave information about the curriculum requirements and explained how to use the online registration website.

4. Transfer student orientations: We held these once a year in the spring for students who had transfered in from other schools or other majors. It was essentially an information session for students- requirements of the program, what supplies they need, the curriculum and a tour of the nursing department.

5. Socials: A few times a year we had social hours for the nursing students to come hang out, destress, ask questions, and meet other students.

6. De-Stress sessions: Near finals, we offered de-stress sessions where student could come to vent, receive a stress-kit with some stress relieving items: granola bars, stress ball, little chocolates, gum, massage lotion, a small notebook, and some packets of information with stress-relieving tips and our school's counseling program.

If you have any more questions, feel free to private message me. I'd be happy to help with your program!

scrapperjoe · Oct 18, 2011

Ashley,

That sounds awesome!!!

You're right - it's a 2 year program....We've paired up the 2nd yr students with any 1st yr that was interested in participating. Got the FB page going to share thoughts, although it hasn't really caught on too much yet and planning some socials....I love the idea of destressing sessions and the 'goodie bags' to go with it! I will definitely keep you posted private msg you with questions....Thanks :)