EXPERIENCES OF A TEAM MENTOR MENTORING NEWLY GRADUATED NURSES WORKING IN EMERGENCY ROOM

Abstract

            The purpose of this study was to describe experiences of a team mentor, mentoring newly graduate nurses working in the Emergency Room. The qualitative research methodology Heidegger’s interpretative phenomenology was used. Ten professional nurses with at least two years experiences with a team mentor were willing to participate in the study. Data was collected using in-depth interviews, voice recordings, field notes and observations. The data were transcribed verbatim and then analyzed using the interpretative method proposed by van Manen. The findings regarding experiences with a team mentor could be categorized into 7 themes as follows 1) assigning a team 2) team leader lecturing academic contents, 3) teaching on-site from actual experiences, 4) practicing good manners, 5) supervising, 6) problem-solving and counseling, and 7) evaluating work performance. The study findings have enabled the researcher to understand the professional nurses who work as the team mentors in training newly graduate nurses. The nursing administrators should be able to apply the work of team mentors in other sectors in order to enable all professional nurses to take part in supervising newly graduate nurses.