Relationship between Mentoring and Career Outcomes of Nurses

Abstract

The present study investigated the relationship between mentoring and the career outcomes of nurses with respect to mentor job positions. A questionnaire survey was administered to 780 non-management level nurses with nursing experience of 10 years or more using a mentoring scale consisting of subcategories "career function," "acceptance/approval function," "manager's behavioral function," and "emotional function," as well as a career outcome questionnaire consisting of subcategories "job satisfaction," "internal motivation," and "achievements." It was found that slightly less than 60% of subjects had a mentor. Subjects whose mentors were "nonmanagement level nurse," "chief nurse/assistant head nurse," and "head nurse," were categorized into 3 groups, and the relationship between mentoring and career outcome in these groups was analyzed. For subjects whose mentor was non-management level nurse, a relatively weak positive correlation was observed between 3 subcategories, except for "emotional function," in the mentoring scale, and all subcategories in the career outcome survey. In the group whose mentor was chief nurse or assistant head nurse, although a relatively weak positive correlation was observed between "career function" and "job satisfaction," no correlation was observed between any other subcategories. In the group whose mentor was head nurse, a relatively strong positive correlation was observed between all subcategories except for between "emotional function" and "job satisfaction." Significantly, Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients between "manager's behavioral function" and "achievements," and "manager's behavioral function" and "job satisfaction" were both above 0.5. Therefore, it was suggested that the mentoring function of head nurse were effective in advancing the career development of individual nurses.