Okay, this is late, and apologies to my co-conspirators Terri Schmitt and Rob Fraser, who challenges to every nurse to read a journal article a week is still open. You can sign up for this tremendous idea here.
APA Citation: Berezuik, S. (2010). Mentoring in emergency care: ‘growing our own’. Emergency Nurse: The Journal Of The RCN Accident And Emergency Nursing Association, 18(7), 12-15. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
The Skinny: Introducing new graduates to the emergency department setting is challenging, and for the nurses themselves, can be overwhelming. Formal and informal mentorship can ease the transition and effectively integrate new nurses into the emergency department team.
Money Quote:
“Mentoring is a universal and effective strategy for nurturing nurses in what are increasingly stressful and challenging work environments. Graduates are the future of the profession, and the mentoring process allows new nurses to build on their optimism rather than having it extinguished by poor experiences and lack of support.”
New Insight: Maybe us old birds should take the initiative and be pro-active in offering our services in being mentors? I mean, we’re talking about the future of the profession here, right?
Why You Should Care: Do you really want to work with people, new grads or not, who aren’t really part of the team, or worse, don’t know what they’re doing? Sharing your knowledge and experience could make all the difference in the world.
Next Week (i.e. tomorrow!):Evaluation and management of apparent life-threatening events in infants.
