VA Nurse Qualification Standard Steering Committee

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VA Nurse Qualification Standard Steering Committee

• Mentoring
• August, 2000

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Mentoring

• Why?

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Purpose

• To define the mentor/mentee relationship and
  engage VA nurses in the power and importance of
  mentoring.
• To inspire and awaken potential NNEI recipients.
• To provide the basics to build and shape a
  mentoring program, a plan for implementation, and
  a means of evaluation.
• To seek and encourage future VA nursing leaders.

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Mentoring

• Lead,
• Follow, and
• Get Out of the Way

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The History of Mentor

• The word originated from Greek mythology.

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The Story of the Starfish

• Mentors make a difference,
• one person at a time

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Lead, Follow Get Out of the Way

• Lead - knowledge and skills are passed down
  through stories and learned by working closely
  with those who have proved themselves in the
  arena.

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Lead, Follow Get Out of the Way

• Follow - advice and counsel become the links
  between doing something under the tutelage of
  someone who has been successful, and actually
  doing it on your own.

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Lead, Follow Get Out of the Way

• Get Out of the Way - a mentoring relationship
  ends in recognition that individuals have gained
  the maturity and judgement to make it on their
  own.

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Mentoring

• A developmental caring, sharing, and helping
  relationship where one person invests time,
  know-how and effort in enhancing another persons
  growth, knowledge and skills.
• Responding to critical needs in the life of
  another person in ways that prepare that person
  for greater performance, productivity or
  achievement in the future.

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Mentoring

• Mentoring is a trusting, confidential
  relationship of advice and professional growth.
• Mentoring is not an easy path to promotions.

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Mentor

• Anyone who has an important, long-lasting,
  beneficial life- or style-enhancing effect on
  another person, generally as a result of personal
  one-on-one contact (regardless of media used).
• One who offers knowledge, insight, perspective or
  wisdom that is helpful to another person in a
  relationship that goes beyond doing ones duty or
  fulfilling ones obligations.

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Mentee

• A person being mentored by another person or
  persons especially one who makes an effort to
  assess, internalize and use effectively the
  knowledge, skills, insights, perspective or
  wisdom offered by the mentor(s).
• A recipient of a mentors help, especially a
  person who seeks out such help and uses is
  appropriately for developmental purposes whenever
  needed.

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Four Basic Needs of People and Organizations
TO LIVE Physical / Economic Fairness and Security
TO LOVE Social /
Emotional Kindness and Respect
THE FIRE WITHIN
TO LEARN Mental / Intellectual Development and
Use of Talent
TO LEAVE A LEGACY
Spiritual / Holistic Meaning
and Integrity
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Mentoring Synergy

• The synergy that flows from mentoring benefits
  everyone involved!

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One of the things mentors do is pass down their
wisdom through stories.

• Storytelling has been the principle means by
  which we have taught one another from the
  beginning of time. The campfire. The tribal
  members gathered round, the little children
  peeping from behind the adults, their eyes as
  wide as dollars, listening, listening. The old
  man--can you hear his crackly voice, telling his
  stories of days gone by?

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Something is learned from the story-

• --the way to surround and kill a saber-toothed
  tiger, the hunt for the king of the mastadons in
  a far-off valley, how the old man survived the
  storm. There are stories of love, of the
  discovery of magic potions, of the evil of the
  warring neighboring tribes--all learning of
  mankind has been handed down for eons in the form
  of stories.
• Gerry Spence
• How to Argue and Win Every Time

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A mentor is a teacher, coach, sponsor, counselor,
advisor--to a group of one.

• Mentors teach you the unspoken rules of the
  organization how to dress, what to say, how to
  navigate within the organization insider
  information that can make you feel at home.
• They share their experiences with you, and they
  expect something back loyalty, confidentiality,
  attention, appreciation and commitment to a
  common goal.

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The Mentoring Spirit

• An unseen, affirming influence and positive
  energy

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The Mentoring Spirit

• A mentor has credibility as a VA nurse
• Must be a leader within the profession
• Understands the new students struggles,
• Has helped new members in the past,
• Has the capacity to be supportive in some
  significant way, and
• Is respected for his/her high moral/ethical
  standards.

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The Mentoring Spirit

• A mentor communicates high expectations.
• Encourages the new member to set high
  expectations for oneself.
• There is nothing so de-motivating for someone as
  having those who knows them best believe they
  will not succeed, no matter what.
• A large body of evidence shows the reverse is
  true, as long as the expectations are realistic.

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The Mentoring Spirit

• A mentor is a good listener.
• Many nurses are more than willing to talk to new
  members, but are not nearly as open to listening.
• This means coming across as understanding but not
  judgmental.
• Respectful listening is the ability to become
  absorbed in what the other person is saying about
  their problem, treating their words as
  confidential, not interjecting their own views,
  opinions or suggestions.

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The Mentoring Spirit

• A mentor has empathy.
• Sympathy can make a person feel like a victim
  because it implies tacitly that one lacks the
  will or power to act on his own.
• Empathy can be uplifting. It says we understand
  another's struggles and at the same time
  acknowledge the person is capable of solving his
  own problems.

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The Mentoring Spirit

• A mentor offers encouragement without assuming
  responsibility for the results.
• This is a simple premise, but fundamental for
  another's personal growth.
• One who takes accountability for another is not
  acting as a mentor but rather a doting parent.
• This deprives the individual of the opportunity
  to learn from their own miss-steps.

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Qualities of Mentors

• Generosity
• Empathy
• Equality
• Integrity
• Trust
• Enthusiasm
• Bravery

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The real leader has no need to lead--he is
content to point the way.

• Henry Miller, The Wisdom of the Heart

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A Mentoring Moment

• Sometimes an individual can offer one of those
  flashes of insight or be part of a revelation
  that makes a difference in our lives, even if a
  single piece of information is all this person
  can provide.
• How do you know when that moment arrives?
  Someone once said, When the student is ready the
  teacher appears.

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Mentoring is one of the broadest methods of
encouraging human growth.

• Mentors can touch every facet of our being if
  we take their offerings and apply them in various
  aspects of our lives.

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Mentoring is the art of making the most of a
given situation.

• Mentoring is part intuition, part feelings and
  part hunch-made up as you go along, and composed
  of whatever ingredients you have available at the
  moment.
• This is the magic that gives mentoring its power.
• Mentoring means going above and beyond. It is a
  relationship in which a person with greater
  experience, expertise, and wisdom counsels,
  teaches, guides, and helps another person to
  develop both personally and professionally.

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Legacy

• History and legend record the deeds of princes
  and kings, but each of us has a birthright to be
  all that we can be, to leave a legacy.

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Leaving a Legacy

• The contributions that become a legacy are not
  etched in granite or inscribed on a plaque.
• Rather,they appear in people, in policies, in
  subtle changes that prove you were there and made
  a difference, no matter how invisible.

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Mentoring Lead., Follow, Get Out of the Way

• Be as a stone cast upon
• the water, that the
• positive influence of
• your action may extend
• far beyond the power of a
• mere pebble in the hand
• of a man.
• --Ancient Saying

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Steps to Mentoring

• 1. Finding a mentor
• 2. Seeking a mentee
• 3. Train your mentors
• 4. Follow through

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Mentoring for Career Development

• Roles are developed.
• Roles are interactive in nature.
• Education, at any level, prepared one for entry
  to some aspect of the profession.
• Women and men differ.
• Some roles nurses seek are new for women, and for
  nurses in particular.

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Summary

• Mentoring Process Summary

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Process Summary

• In the first phase of the mentoring process, the
  mentor takes the lead.
• The lead part is the knowledge and skills
  passed down through the stories of the mentor.

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Process Summary

• The follow phase is a gradual transition as the
  lead moves from mentor to mentee. In this stage
  the mentor becomes a consultant, advisor,
  counselor and sounding board to the person
  mentored.
• Following is an important step in the mentoring
  process. Its the link between doing something
  under someones tutelage and actually doing it on
  your own.

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Process Summary

• Getting out of the way represents a challenge
  for both the mentor and the mentee. Important
  considerations for getting out of the way
  include the mentees independence and judgement
  and the mentors sense of how much more they can
  offer.

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MentoringLead, follow Get Out of the Way

• To leave is to die a little
• It is to die to what one loves
• One leaves behind a little of oneself
• At any hour, any place.
• Edmund Haraucourt

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The Future is up to You!

• Mentoring is more than a workshop, more that a
  program, more than this years initiative. Its
  an ongoing commitment for any organization, large
  or small, that hopes to survive.

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Mentoring a Nursing Colleague

• IF IT IS TO BE
• IT IS UP TO ME!

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Questions

• ?

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Bibliography

• Peddy, Shirley. The Art of Mentoring. Bullion
  Books, Houston, TX, 1998.
• Shea, Gordon F. Making the Most of Being
  Mentored. Crisp Publications, Inc., Lanham, MD,
  1999.
• Shea, Gordon F. Mentoring. Crisp Publications,
  Inc., Lanham, MD, 1992.
• Sinetar, Marsha. The Mentors Spirit. St.
  Martins Press, New York, NY, 1998.