E-Mentoring for Doctor of Nursing Practice Students: A Pilot Program

The growing number of online Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) programs, steady attrition rates, and shortage of faculty created an opportunity to explore the use of distance-mediated mentoring.

Twenty first-year DNP Nursing Leadership students were matched with DNP-prepared mentors in a formalized e-mentoring program. The Ideal Mentor Scale was used to determine what students desired most from the mentoring relationship in addition to midpoint and end-of-program surveys.

Quantitative analysis revealed mentors and mentees found the relationship to be beneficial (p < .05). Mentees (89%) and mentors (92%) noted the program supplied adequate resources, and the majority of students would recommend the program.

Having a mentor leads to both mentor- and mentee-perceived benefits. Recommendations include continuing to seek ways to improve the communication and commitment between the mentor and mentee in order to receive reciprocal program benefits. [J Nurs Educ. 2016;55(8):458-462.].