PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE CLINICAL SETTING: NEONATAL INTENSIVE CARE UNIT

Abstract

Mentorship program in nursing is designed to nurture and develop new faculty and foster faculty retention (Blauvelt, 2008). Nurses supporting nurses programs are developed to support collectively the mentor and mentee promoting success in achieving their learning objectives. Engaging mentors in providing high quality education to graduating nurses often becomes a challenge for expert nurses. Mentors often have extensive clinical experience and are willing to share their knowledge but the barrier relates more to the transference of that knowledge. This project is practical tool that explores relationship building, behavior, self‐ reflection and competence of a mentor as it relates to the clinical practice in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Topics related to mentorship, simulation in education and professional education are described in this project. The final product (the handbook) provides information about the roles and responsibilities of the mentor, evaluation tools, rubrics and workshops. There is also a presentation of the role of the mentor for future workshops related to professional development in nursing.