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Executive Summary
* Mentoring programs can enhance nursing satisfaction, improve retention, ensure optimal patient outcomes, and may have a positive organizational effect in developing leadership skills in nursing.
* In this study, the effects of a formal mentoring program were explored on a sample of 18 professional nurse leaders (nine mentors and nine protégés) at a university hospital in Turkey.
* After receiving a formal mentoring training program, mentors and protégés were paired with each other for a 6-month monitoring period.
* An overall assessment revealed both mentors and protégés perceived benefits from the mentoring program.
* The formal mentoring program created positive change in leadership behaviors for both mentors and protégés and contributed toward relational job learning for mentors and personal skill development for protégés.
* Suggestions are provided for the integration of formal mentoring programs into the organizational culture.
Health care organizations benefit when they attract new nurses and minimize turnover. Organizations are increasingly promoting mentor programs to foster professional relationships to improve individual and organizational effectiveness (Bally, 2007; Beecroft, Santner, Lacy, Kunzman, & Dorey, 2006; Block, Claffey, Korow, & McCaffrey, 2005; Fowler & O'Gorman, 2005; Halfer, Graf, & Sullivan, 2008; Lankau & Scandura, 2002; Waters, Clarke, Ingall, & Dean-Jones, 2003).
Halfer and colleagues (2008) emphasized implementing longitudinal mentoring programs is an effective strategy for retaining new graduate nurses. These programs often require an infusion of personal resources for mentoring novice nurse competency development and socialization in the profession (Halfer et al., 2008). Mentoring, traditionally viewed as an intense, exclusive, dynamic relationship between a novice and an expert, promotes a newcomer's socialization and role success (Fowler & O'Gorman, 2005; Hayes 2005). The first descriptions of mentoring are found in Homer's The Odyssey, The relationship between Telemachus (son of King Odysseus) and Athena (who appears in the form of the man, Mentor) is described as an allegory for the process of maturing and taking command of difficult situations (Barker, 2006; Berk, Berg, Mortimer, Moss, & Yeo, 2005; Block et al., 2005; Hayes, 2005; Kilcullen, 2007).
Mentoring is often described as a relationship between a student and a teacher (or novice and expert, tapping into "caring" as a core value and empowering one another in their personal and professional lives (Vance, 1982). Mentoring is...