Building Professional Capacity: Mentoring for Graduate Registered Nurses

Running head: BUILDING PROFESSIONAL CAPACITY 1
Building Professional Capacity: Mentoring as a Professional Development Strategy for new
Graduate Registered Nurse in relation to the Transition Phase to Practice
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BUILDING PROFESSIONAL CAPACITY 2
Building Professional Capacity: Mentoring
The transition from a student to a graduate registered nurse can be considered as a
significant milestone in the professional life of a student. In the ever-changing healthcare sector,
one thing that remains constant is the fact that there has always been an increase in demand for
nurses. The aim of this paper is to discuss a strategy for effective transition of graduate registered
nurses to the real practical world or working environment. Specifically, the paper will discuss the
significance of mentoring for Graduate Registered Nurses and how it helps during transition and
its implications on work-life balance and resilience. SMART goals for achieving work life
balance and resilience will also be discussed.
The significance of Mentoring for GRN
In a complex profession like nursing, it is essential for practitioners to adopt the
evidence-based practice and advocate for professional development. According to Melrose
(2018), the traditional ways of educating and supporting research, clinical, personal and
academic growth in the nursing profession has been found wanting. Literature supports
mentoring as a strategy to address the existing gaps in individual nurse support. Effective
mentoring results in promotion of collegiality, increased job satisfaction, team building,
improved teaching and professional skills, and improved clinical and academic performances.
Mentoring has been defined by different researchers and hence, getting a universal
understanding in the nursing field has proved to be difficult. The most common definition is by
Martin & Hodge (2011) who defined mentoring as a relationship between two individuals in
which the one with more experiences and more educated guides others and help them in their
personal and professional development. Woolnough and Fielden (2017) defined mentoring as a
process where a more experienced individual extends a helping hand to a young and aspiring

BUILDING PROFESSIONAL CAPACITY 3
person for advice, teaching and guidance in order to help him/her in establishing their profession.
Considering these definitions, it is apparent that mentoring is very crucial for new graduate
registered nurses.
Kaihlanen, Lakanmaa and Salminen (2013) note that graduate nursing students are not
well-prepared to handle the increased responsibility and the actual roles of a nurse in the hospital
set up. Mentoring process has a significant impact on the new registered nurses who want to start
their working life as it helps them in their professional growth and the development of self-
esteem (Edwards, Hawker, Carrier & Rees, 2015). Wong et al. (2018) note that graduate
registered nurses face a lot of challenges during their transition phases such as work
dissatisfaction and stress which makes them quit their jobs. Some studies have established that
mentoring and orientation can help them to increase their confidence in handling patients,
increase job satisfaction and in coping with work stress (Tsang, Sham, Law, Chan & Sze, 2016).
A compelling new graduate nurse-mentor relationship helps in supporting the professional
growth of the graduate nurse (Mellor, Gregoric & Gillham, 2017). Mentoring has a significant
impact on the experiences of acceptance, appreciation and belongingness and is considered to be
an indicator of how easy the transition process to working life will be (Kaihlanen, Lakanmaa &
Salminen, 2013). Mentors help new professionals and act as role models and adviser who can be
relied upon in the new learning environment. Mentoring provides an opportunity for new
graduate nurses to familiarize themselves with the new demands and roles as professional nurses
(Kaihlanen, Lakanmaa & Salminen, 2013).
Implications of Mentoring to Work-life Balance and Resilience
Graduate registered nurses face a lot of challenges in their initial stages of the career.
Such challenges have made it impossible to achieve a work-life balance which is a goal of any