A prearranged mentorship program: can it work long distance?

Mentoring is a supportive and nurturing relationship between an expert and a novice. A formal mentorship program was embarked on by the Southern Council on Collegiate Education in Nursing during the early 1990s. The purpose of this article is to share the unique experience of two faculty who were assigned as mentors through a written inventory process and who were able to establish a successful mentorship, overcoming the barriers of time, distance, and an apparent mismatch of interests and clinical skills. The authors recommend mentoring as an important professional endeavor. Everyone-mentor, protégé, and the nursing profession as a whole-gains during the mentoring process.