Establishing a Mentorship Program

¶ … Health organizations can experience a lot of employee turnover as well as a lot of employee non-performance: talk to any nurse about the phenomenon of "burnout" in the nursing profession, or talk to any hospital administrator about the problem of employee retention, and these issues will be described as relatively commonplace. These problems lead to an issue with what we must call "succession" -- the idea that, as an older generation of professionals passes on, the younger generation is ready to take over. The ideal way to deal with succession issues in a health organization (as well as handle issues such as employee training or employee non-performance) is through a mentorship program. However, a number of issues can hamper the installation of a successful mentorship program, and must be addressed.

One of the chief barriers in establishing such a program, however, has been outlined by Ledlow and Coppola (2013), as they observe that both cultural and institutional bias tilts in the direction of wanting to offer mentoring opportunities to white males; there are many difficulties with this bias, not least of which is the notion that American demographics are fast shifting away from a majority white population. In terms of a succession plan, it may very well undercut the mentorship program altogether if two in five younger employees is Latino, matching the emerging demographic trends in the American population. Ledlow and Coppola (2013) suggest that in selecting mentors, "white male leaders should be aware of the potential for disproportional mentoring opportunities: people of color and females should receive mentoring opportunities in the workplace as well" (396). The important aspect is to be conscious of the bias, and to bear it in mind when establishing mentor relationships. However, this could arguably be seen as part of a larger issue which is paramount in instituting a mentorship program, which is that the careful selection of mentors is necessary for the success of any such program. Mentors have to be motivated, empathetic, and skilled with the communication of knowledge to fellow professionals. To have mentorship be mandatory, or to offer too great a financial incentive for participation, will only ensure the presence of undermotivated mentors, which defeats the whole purpose.

The next issue with any mentorship program is the establishment of clear and purposefully strategic goals for the program. If succession is the chief goal, then obviously an age disparity in the mentorship program should be welcomed. However, succession may not be the only desirable goal that an organization wishes to achieve with a mentorship program. For example, the nationwide lack of skilled nursing professionals may necessitate a program that can facilitate the transfer of skilled expertise. In this case, a peer mentoring model should also be considered. Bryant and Terborg (2008) define peer mentoring as "an intentional one-on-one relationship between employees at the same or similar lateral level in the firm that involves a more experienced employee providing support and teaching new knowledge and skills to a less experienced employee" (11). In other words, there is no hierarchical distinction between mentor and mentee -- both may be nurses with the same pay-scale, but one has greater experience. This can be particularly useful in terms of increasing the number of employees who share a specific and complicated specialization. It also does not have to be conducted as a formal and personal relationship that the more traditional mentoring employs. Cahill and Payne (2006) have offered a model of online mentoring which is suited for "this time of a serious nursing shortage" which is able to increase the expertise of novice professionals within a highly specialized field (695). Again, however, this specific model will hinge upon the clear strategic goals that have been enunciated by the mentorship program at the start. If everybody in the mentorship program knows that the chief goal of the program is to provide for institutional succession, then the selection of participants will entail gauging their willingness to remain with the institution. If everybody in the mentorship program knows that the goal is for peers to increase the availability of specialized professionals by educating peers, then it has a different purpose altogether.