Abstract:
Mentorship is one to one reciprocal nurturing relationship between a more
experienced and knowledgeable mentor and a less experienced mentee. A mentor
is a person who has expertise in the areas of need identified by the mentee and
was able to share the wisdom in a nurturing way. A mentee was someone seeking
guidance in developing specific competencies, self awareness and skills in early
intervention.
The study aim was to evaluate mentees experience in nursing mentorship
programs. This was a descriptive and exploratory cross-sectional evaluative study.
It used both qualitative and quantitative methods in data collection where
106mentees participated. Qualitative data collection utilized focus group
discussions, while quantitative utilized questionnaires. In quantitative data
collection method, simple random sampling was used while in qualitative,
purposive and snowball non probability samplings were used to select
participants.Exploratory data analysiswas used to summarize quantitative data. For
qualitative data analysis, thematic content analysis was done.
The study found out that mentees preferred formal to informal mentorship
program. Youthful female Mentees were involved in mentorship programs than
their counterparts. Formal mentorship program has been in existence for more
than five years in Kenyatta University (KU), while informal mentorship program is
more recent in both University of Nairobi (UoN) and Masinde Muliro University of
Science and Technology (MMUST). Mentees in informal unlike formal mentorship
programs reported they had good mentorship relationship with their mentors.
Majority of mentees 88% (n = 22/25) in formal unlike informal mentorship
programs reported that the level of institutional support provided by the
institutions was adequate.
The study recommends that, all the stakeholders should be encouraged to
evaluate nursing mentorship programs in institutions’ of higher learning. On the
other hand, stakeholders should create, implement and update useful mentorship
programs evaluation tools. Policy makers should act to secure mentorship
programs and produce laws that favor their implementation and evaluation. For
further studies, this study recommended, research on comparison of mentees and
mentors experience in formal and informal nursing mentorship programs.
