Legacy Mentors: translating the wisdom of our senior nurses

'Legacy Mentors' are nurses aged 55 or older with a wealth of knowledge and passion to share with other nurses. Finding ways to capture their wisdom, disseminate their expertise, and potentially retain them longer is critical. As part of an innovative Educator Pathway project in two health authorities in British Columbia, Canada, nurses with up to 40 years of experience proposed to share their wisdom and translate their expertise for the next generation of nurses. The Legacy Mentor Project involved 29 nurses who developed projects to share knowledge with students, novice and experienced nurses in their work settings. The project included an orientation workshop to facilitate project start-up, a mid-way workshop for sharing progress, and a celebration event in September 2009 which highlighted their learning and final outcomes in. Project evaluation through surveys, focus groups and interviews revealed that the nurses' expertise was validated, suggesting that the translation of expertise by re-energized nurses is a strategy with potential to enhance retention of our most experienced nurses while also enhancing practice learning environments. Unexpected outcomes were reciprocal learning and changing practice of nursing peers through modelling and discussion. This paper will describe the process and outcomes of this pilot project, including description of the projects completed by the Legacy Mentors.