Group mentoring: a story of transition for undergraduate baccalaureate nursing students.

BACKGROUND

Group mentoring has been endorsed as an effective method of supporting novice professionals across disciplines. In one university, faculty revised the undergraduate nursing curriculum to include a group mentoring course as a requirement of students during the four semesters they are enrolled in the nursing program.

OBJECTIVES

The purpose of this study was to explore the lived experience of undergraduate nursing students participating in a group mentoring course.

DESIGN

This study used a hermeneutic interpretive phenomenological method.

SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS

Data were collected from 22 undergraduate nursing students enrolled in group mentoring courses at a private Midwestern university in the United States.

METHODS

At the end of each semester of mentoring, students provided written responses to five open-ended questions about their experiences of participating in the mentoring courses.

RESULTS

Four themes emerged: conversation, communication, connection, and cohesion.

CONCLUSION

Group mentoring was an effective way to support nursing students as they transitioned from undergraduate student to novice professional nurse.