Why is there no nursing school mentoring?

[etuttle1]

I have been a nurse for about a year, and as I was starting my career I was very impressed with the amount of mentoring/new grad nursing programs out there to help new nurses transition into the workplace. However, I continue to see a lack of mentoring programs for nursing students in both my nursing school and others. I have yet to find a successful nursing school mentoring program. I personally really struggled on my journey to become a nurse and throughout my first year as a nurse. I would have loved some kind of consistent support and guidance throughout nursing school and as a new nurse.

I am very interested in starting a nursing mentoring program involving nursing students, new nurses, nursing faculty, and experienced nurses. Does anyone have any success stories, suggestions, or heard of programs like this?

[Dogen]

I did an accelerated program that started in June and finished the following September. Each June the cohort that was about to graduate became mentors for the group that had just started. I didn't sign up to have a mentor at the beginning, but did sign up to be one at the end, and thought it went well... not sure it's the sort of thing you're looking for, though, since it was very brief and didn't last past the end of the summer quarter. It was mostly for things like how to reserve a room or what books you used and which ones you didn't or how to find the student health center in the labyrinth that is a large university.

To be honest, I've been to three colleges, and my BSN was the only program that offered a mentor. When I did my psychology degree I was on my own and we all survived. I had a faculty adviser, but it was up to me to contact them. When I was a mentor to new students the majority of the information I was asked could have been printed in a single informational handout and given out at orientation or by making the school's webpage even moderately user friendly. The only insider information I was ever asked was which books they could not buy and how often they could skip so-and-so's class without affecting their grade.

[OCNRN63, RN]

We had a "Big Sister/Little Sister" program. Once you became a junior, you were assigned to a freshman.

[rbs105, ADN, MSN, RN]

YES YES AND YES!!!! Please PM me. I have some solutions and have been working on this topic for awhile now. Please-anyone else who is interested in this. PM me.

rbs105