Date of Conferral

2021

Degree

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

School

Nursing

Advisor

Robert McWhirt

Abstract

Mentorship is vital part of the nursing profession. The evidence suggests that competent mentors aid in facilitating role transitions, improving job satisfaction, enhancing patient care, and decreasing nursing turnover. Advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) have the skill and knowledge to provide safe, high-quality, patient-centered care; however, they may be lacking in mentorship abilities. Currently, there is no formal mentorship training in the organization, which may cause variability in the mentoring of new staff. The focus of this project was to create a staff educational intervention to improve the mentoring competency of surgical APRNs. The project practice focused question asked if a formal APRN mentorship training program geared towards the six elements of mentoring (as measured by the Mentoring Competency Assessment [MCA]) increased the mentoring competency of APRNs serving in a mentorship role. Benner’s Theory guided the planning and development of this project, while the MCA was used for the pre- and postintervention self-reflection survey. The educational intervention was based on the pretest lowest scores. Eighteen APRNs were recruited to participate. Following a pretest survey, participants experienced an educational intervention geared towards mentoring and mentoring competencies. Using a Wilcoxon Singed Rank test, there were statistically significant differences in six of the 26 individual items and in the overall pretest mean scores and the posttest mean scores (z = -3.41, p < 0.01), indicating that the APRN mentorship training increased the mentoring competency of the APRNs in all mentorship domains. Educating APRNs in mentorship competencies may enhance mentorship abilities and result in positive patient and organizational outcomes.

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