Committing to Mentorship: Nurse Managers’ Perceptions of their Roles in Creating Mentoring Cultures

Abstract

Nursing employees are drawn to healthy work environments and the nursing unit manager plays a key role in establishing and maintaining a positive workplace culture. Employee mentoring is one strategy that has been found to contribute to healthy work environments and thus facilitates recruitment and retention of staff. However, very little research exists that explores the nurse manager’s role in creating a mentoring culture on the nursing unit. The purpose of this study was to develop a theory of nurse managers’ perceptions of their roles in creating a mentoring culture on the nursing unit. The objectives included: (a) exploring managers’ perceptions of their role in creating a mentoring culture, (b) discovering the processes of creating a culture of mentoring, and (c) exploring the organizational features supporting and inhibiting this process of developing a mentoring culture. Glaserian grounded theory methodology was utilized for this study and the core variable of “Committing to Mentorship” emerged. Knowledge of mentoring gained from this study may assist to sustain the healthcare system by creating and enhancing quality workplace environments through increasing job satisfaction and recruitment and retention of highly skilled individuals and creating positive workplace experiences for staff and students. Ultimately, the implementation of knowledge gained from this study may assist to produce positive patient outcomes and patient satisfaction by constructing and nurturing a culture of learning and safety.