SERVICES PROVIDED BY YOUR UNIVERSITY
Mentoring and support by a tutor
Definition
Essentially, mentoring is a nurturing process, in which a more skilled or experienced person, serving as a role model, teaches, sponsors, encourages, counsels, and befriends a less skilled person for the purpose of promoting the latter’s professional and personal development.
Formal mentoring programs are designed to accomplish specific goals, have a coordinator to oversee operations and evaluate progress, and are of a finite duration. Informal mentoring is spontaneous, based on need and interpersonal attraction, and continues as long as needs are being met 1;.
What to expect
In a mentoring program for stress reduction, mentees can be paired with mentors for a set time interval (e.g., for the duration of a semester) during which mentors can provide consultation to the mentees on a diverse number of topics.
For example, a program tested by Demir et al.2 was built around the seven basic needs described by Maslow in his hierarchy. For a list of topics addressed in the mentorship relationship, see the table situated on the next page.
|
BASIC NEEDS CONTENT |
CONTENT |
|
Physiological needs |
Accommodation, nutrition, scholarship |
|
Safety needs |
Information about the school and the university, awareness of student rights, use of health services, use the health center, clinical practice |
|
Cognitive needs |
Information about lecturers and lessons, motivation, information about effective study methods, organize the mentee’s work schedule, accomplishment in lessons, stress regarding lessons, use of the library, computer and internet use |
|
Social needs |
Social activities, problems experienced in interpersonal relations, friendship |
|
Self-esteem |
Self-confidence |
|
Self-actualization |
Coping with stress, solving mentee’s problems, awareness of mentee’s personality traits |
|
Profession |
Mentee’s views regarding the profession, anxiety regarding the profession, introduction regarding nursing profession, job possibilities after graduation |
These types of programs are likely to reduce student burnout, as research shows that school or teacher supports have the strongest negative relationship to student burnout3. Check if your university is providing mentorship programs and try them out!
Resources for self-directed practice:
- A scientific article on the effect of a mentoring program on ways of coping with stress and locus of control
- A systematic review of the literature describing the outcomes of near-peer mentoring programs for first year medical students
Documents
1. Dorsey, L.E., Baker, C. M. (2004). Mentoring undergraduate nursing students: assessing the state of the science. Nurse Educator,
29(6), 260-265.
2.Demir, S., Demir, S. G., Bulut, H., Hisar, F. (2014). Effect of mentoring program on ways of coping with stress and locus of control
for nursing students. Asian Nursing Research, 8(4), 254-260.
3. Kim, B., Jee, S., Lee, J., An, S., Lee, S.M. (2018). Relationships between social support and student burnout: A meta-analytic
approach. Stress and Health: Journal of the International Society for the Investigation of Stress, 34(1), 127-134.