Cultivating faculty growth: Mentors' experiences of supporting tenure-track faculty in nursing academia

Mentoring and supporting nursing faculty to obtain tenure is crucial to the advancement of individual faculty, the academic institution, and the nursing profession. Little is known about mentoring from the perspectives of nursing faculty mentors.

The purpose of this study was to explore mentors' experiences of supporting tenure-track faculty in nursing academia.

Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with 16 nursing faculty mentors from 16 different academic institutions across all four geographic regions of the United States. Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis was adopted to construct the meaning of mentors' experiences of supporting tenure-track nursing faculty.

Four major themes were interpreted as follows: 1) Perceptions of mentorship: getting them to fly, 2) Making it work: being a holistic coach, 3) Fostering symbiotic relationships: it is bidirectional learning, and 4) Envisioning the future: keeping them in academia.

The study highlights faculty mentors' perceived mission in growing tenure-track faculty in their professional and personal lives. The findings suggest several practice implications in the areas of content, time, approach, pairing, and sustainability of faculty mentorship. Future faculty mentoring programs in nursing academia need to recognize the diverse needs of faculty members and tailor approaches to faculty career stages.