Responsibilities of nursing schools with regard to peer mentoring

This article reports on the postgraduate critical care students' mentoring of the third-year undergraduate nursing students during integrated work-based learning in the critical care units. The purpose of the research was to describe what the nursing school could do to improve this mentoring programme. A qualitative descriptive design was used. The nominal group technique was used to gather data from the mentors and mentees. Data from the groups were combined and qualitatively analysed into themes. Thereafter the themes were quantitatively ranked. The themes, ranking from the highest to the lowest, were orientation, organisation, mentoring process, characteristics of the mentor, and feedback to the mentor. Findings suggest that the nursing school does not always optimally support the mentoring programme. It is recommended that more than one communication medium be used to disperse information among role-players. Nursing schools should develop mentors, monitor their interactions with mentees and give them feedback on their mentoring skills. It is also the responsibility of the nursing school to select mentors that match the desired profile of mentors.