The purpose of this study was to observe and document peer-mentoring and its function in music classes in The International School of Kuala Lumpur (ISKL). Specifically, this study examined the influence of peer-mentoring on the socialization of secondary international school children while documenting and analyzing the perception of the students, faculty, and administration of ISKL towards peer-mentoring. Qualitative methodology in the format of a case study that included interviews and observations was selected to examine the experiences and views of both students and faculty at ISKL in relation to peer mentoring in the music department. The researcher served as a participant researcher as he was employed by ISKL as an instrumental music instructor during the time of data collection. Results yielded by the study revealed a number of themes. Peer-mentoring occurred on the campus of ISKL both formally through the structures set in place by the instructors, and informally as students assisted classmates on their own initiative. There was limited administrative awareness of the mentoring taking place. Scheduling appeared to be a significant obstacle to the development of the program. The common instructional language of English and the eclectic nature of the school culture caused the linguistic and cultural variances to be less of a factor. One theme that emerged as the data was triangulated was the role that the transient nature of the school played in the peer-mentoring process, as there was significant turnover from year to year of both students and faculty at the school. Bonds formed between mentors and mentees relatively easily and quickly. Conversely, the short tenure of the music instructors involved hampered the development of the program, as they were no longer present to continue supporting the program.

Retention of first year college students has been problematic in many U.S. colleges, and different mentoring frameworks have been explored to help resolve the issue. The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to examine how the mentoring program at Brown Community College (BCC; pseudonym) positively increased retention of first year college students. BCC is a community college located in a metropolitan urban area in a southern state. Tinto's model of social integration and academic success was used to undergird the study. Research questions were developed to understand how BCC's mentoring program was supporting first year students' retention and what these students perceived as integral in order to persist throughout their program of study. Another question sought faculty's perceptions of how their mentoring program influenced retention at the college. Data collection included structured face-to-face interviews with a purposeful sample of 10 first year college students and two faculty mentors who provided mentorship at BCC. Content analyses were used to identify and isolate the themes through axial coding. The results showed that mentoring may be the catalyst needed to ensure that students stay in college and increase retention and graduation rates. The findings provide useful data for developing curriculum policies that may improve service delivery opportunities for at-risk students. The findings also showed that having qualified college graduates may increase productivity in the workforce and help the college graduates become more successful citizens. Recommendations are offered to improve the existing mentoring program to enable the students to experience social changes in their pursuit of academic success.

Evidence-based practice has resulted in better patient outcomes, higher patient satisfaction, and effective patient-centered care. Leadership of a large teaching hospital determined that new nurses lacked the education and experience to design and implement an evidence-based project at the bedside, which was an expected outcome for completion of the established nurse residency program. The purpose of this project was to develop a design-only project in which Masters of Science in Nursing-prepared mentors were added to the residency program to establish the required evidence-based project. A mentor workshop was developed to guide the mentors in this role using Benner's novice to expert theoretical model. A team of stakeholders, including an expert in the field of nursing education, provided ongoing process evaluation in the development of the outcome products including the Mentor Facilitation Guide, Mentor Workshop Curriculum, Mentoring Toolkit, Pre-and Post-Mentor Workshop Survey Assessment, and Mentor Implementation Plan. Stakeholders completed a summative evaluation on the processes, outcomes, and student leadership of the project. Findings showed that the project met 100% of the stated goals and objectives, as evidenced by the stakeholders' responses to the summative evaluation regarding the degree of effectiveness for the project, process, and leadership skills. Implementation and evaluation of the project, which was developed for use in the hospitals' existing nurse residency program, will occur post-graduation. Social change will occur if new nurses learn to use evidence-based practice to support their nursing actions, resulting in improved patient care outcomes and population health.

This is a phenomenological research study of the lived experience of women student mentors at one community college located in an urban setting on the West Coast. The study participants were women students who served as mentors to other women at the community college who are participants in a returning women's program. The researcher interacted with the study participants over a nine-month time period. Interviews were held with the six mentor participants prior to their mentoring experience, during the time of the mentoring experience, and at the end of the mentoring experience. The data for this study consist of interviews, observation, and field notes. The mentoring program coordinator was also interviewed to provide for triangulation of data. Six themes emerged from the interviews with the participants and subsequent analysis of the data: Reflecting on past experience, wanting to help, setting and maintaining boundaries, experiencing strong emotions, relational support from other women, and mentoring as a reciprocal relationship. The resulting implication for practice recommendations from this study for community college administrators and student service professionals designing or implementing mentoring programs are: provide training for mentors, provide ongoing support for mentors, offer an orientation for the mentees on responsibilities and expectations, design the mentoring program to provide a full academic year for the mentor-mentee pair to meet, provide benefit and rewards for serving as a mentor, and ensure adequate staffing of the program. Recommendations for further research on student mentoring are provided. They include additional research in the areas of women as student mentors, men as student mentors, comparison of the experiences of male and female mentors, retention studies on students who serve as mentors, college credit and training for mentors, mentoring programs across individual college campuses, and a statewide view of mentoring programs on college campuses. / Graduation date: 2006

As a result of recent social and political pressure and an increase in academic standards, there is a call to address academic and behavioral needs of at-risk students at the secondary level. Currently, many secondary schools are struggling to provide research-based interventions for these students. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a school-based mentoring program utilizing existing school staff and functioning within the constraints of a typical high school schedule, on at-risk students. The study aimed to add to the body of research on interventions in secondary settings and extend research on mentoring. Five at-risk high school students participated in the study which took place during the 2008-09 school year. All of the students received basic mentoring procedures, and three were identified for more advanced mentoring procedures half-way through the school year. Data was collected on academic and social outcomes and the viability of the intervention in the secondary setting. Overall, results of the study were mixed but indicated that the intervention was mildly effective for almost all students in at least one of the areas studied. Limitations of the study and implications for future research and practice are identified and discussed.

The literature suggests that mentoring is an important factor in the development of nurse leaders. Preliminary evidence suggests that self-efficacy may provide the conceptual link between receipt of mentoring functions and leadership performance. The purpose of this study was to contribute to the scientific knowledge base that informs nursing administration by examining the contribution of mentoring to development of leadership self-efficacy (LSE) among nurses. The conceptual framework that guided the study integrated theoretical perspectives from mentoring, leadership, and self-efficacy theories. A prospective, repeated measures design was used. One hundred Registered Nurses completed measures of LSE at the beginning and conclusion of leadership training and three months following training, and mentoring just prior to the final LSE measurement. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to assess the effect of mentoring on self-efficacy for each of five leadership practices. The change in LSE levels over the course of the leadership training intervention was included as a control for the effect of training. Participant administrative experience and professional education were included as controls. Study results did not support the proposition that protégé exposure to career and psychosocial mentoring would lead to higher levels of LSE. Mentorship did not predict self-efficacy for any of the leadership practices. The impact of participants’ mentoring experiences prior to the study, low statistical power due to a small sample size, homogeneity of respondents with respect to their mentorship experiences, and the possibility of a ceiling effect for LSE are possible explanations for these results. Results did suggest that mentored nurses were able to enhance their LSE during leadership training, and to sustain this increase upon return to their home organizations. Findings also provided insight into the prevalence of mentoring among nurses who are actively pursuing leadership development. Nearly two-thirds of the respondents were mentored during the study period, and these nurses reported that their mentoring relationships were active and positive. Mentoring continues to be advanced as an important contributor to leadership development among nurses. This study reinforces the need for further exploration of this relationship to inform and guide developmental interventions and allocation of resources.

Mentoring has been proposed as a human resource strategy to encourage recruitment and retention of nurses in Canada. However, very little research exists related to mentoring in nursing. The purpose of this study was to describe the mentoring perceptions of acute care, clinical registered nurses based on their years of nursing practice, age, gender, and education level. A descriptive correlational design was performed on an analysis of a subset of the pre-workshop data gathered as part of the research of Ferguson, Myrick, and Yonge (2006). The conceptual framework used to structure the research questions was Benners Novice to Expert model (Benner, 1984; Benner, Tanner, & Chesla, 1996). The main research question related to the relationship between nursing experience level and mentoring perceptions. More specifically, what is the relationship between age, years of nursing practice, education level, gender, and mentoring perceptions including perceived costs and benefits to mentoring, willingness to mentor, mentoring functions of coworkers, and satisfaction with current mentoring relationships? This research established that age, years of nursing practice on the current unit, and education level had some impact on mentoring perceptions. Older nurses believed that the mentor played a greater psychosocial function in the mentorship than did younger nurses. Nurses with fewer years of practice on their current unit perceived fewer costs to mentoring, were more satisfied with their mentor, and were more willing to mentor. Previous experience as a protégé positively impacted mentoring perceptions. Nurses with prior mentoring experience were more willing to mentor. There were no significant differences between nurses with diplomas or degrees as their basic or highest level of education in nursing and mentoring perceptions. Nurses with a baccalaureate degree in another discipline perceived more benefits to mentoring than their diploma-prepared colleagues. No significant differences were noted when comparing gender with mentoring perceptions. The results of this study will provide healthcare organizations with a deeper understanding of mentoring perceptions and mentorships. From the knowledge acquired by this study, organizations can better encourage and endorse formal and informal mentoring in acute care environments. Retention and recruitment of registered nurses can be facilitated through support for mentoring.

For urban secondary students, the benefits of attending after-school programs may not be solely academic—rather, their attendance and participation may yield more fundamental development needs. A supportive network of influential and positive mentors can improve urban secondary students learning experience outside of the classroom. Urban secondary students may have access to support and assistance from mentors by attending an after-school program. This qualitative ethnographic study explored the perceptions of tutors working in an after-school program in a large urban school district. This study attempted to understand of the tutors’ motivation for working with students, the support that they provided to the students, and the needs they thought the students have. The data was collected through individual interviews and observations of the tutors during the program. Data was analyzed for common themes to support the research questions. From the interview questions, a total of twelve themes were generated to answer the three research questions. According to the participants interviewed in this study, the interactions with the tutors in the program served as catalysts that promoted student academic success and social development. While the themes originating from the questioned varied, the underlying conclusion of the interview data from this research study is that students take more of an interest in themselves and their academic ability when someone else takes a genuine interest in them and their academic ability.

The literature suggests that mentoring is an important factor in the development of nurse leaders. Preliminary evidence suggests that self-efficacy may provide the conceptual link between receipt of mentoring functions and leadership performance. The purpose of this study was to contribute to the scientific knowledge base that informs nursing administration by examining the contribution of mentoring to development of leadership self-efficacy (LSE) among nurses. The conceptual framework that guided the study integrated theoretical perspectives from mentoring, leadership, and self-efficacy theories. A prospective, repeated measures design was used. One hundred Registered Nurses completed measures of LSE at the beginning and conclusion of leadership training and three months following training, and mentoring just prior to the final LSE measurement. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to assess the effect of mentoring on self-efficacy for each of five leadership practices. The change in LSE levels over the course of the leadership training intervention was included as a control for the effect of training. Participant administrative experience and professional education were included as controls. Study results did not support the proposition that protégé exposure to career and psychosocial mentoring would lead to higher levels of LSE. Mentorship did not predict self-efficacy for any of the leadership practices. The impact of participants’ mentoring experiences prior to the study, low statistical power due to a small sample size, homogeneity of respondents with respect to their mentorship experiences, and the possibility of a ceiling effect for LSE are possible explanations for these results. Results did suggest that mentored nurses were able to enhance their LSE during leadership training, and to sustain this increase upon return to their home organizations. Findings also provided insight into the prevalence of mentoring among nurses who are actively pursuing leadership development. Nearly two-thirds of the respondents were mentored during the study period, and these nurses reported that their mentoring relationships were active and positive. Mentoring continues to be advanced as an important contributor to leadership development among nurses. This study reinforces the need for further exploration of this relationship to inform and guide developmental interventions and allocation of resources.

Group mentoring may offer similar supports as traditional one-on-one mentoring and a more culturally consistent forum for addressing issues of ethnicity, academic self-concept and school connectedness (Lindsay-Dennis, Cummings, McClendon, in press; Utsey, Howard & Williams, 2003). The present study investigates the development of students’ ethnic identity, academic self-concept and school connectedness through participation in a school based group mentoring program within a culturally diverse high school. Employing a mixed method design and multilevel modeling analysis, both the ethnicity of the mentor and the diversity composition of each group were assessed as contributors to the mentoring process. Ethnic identity and academic self concept did not yield significant associations (p =.75 and p =.42). School connectedness yielded a significant, but negative association (p < .05) from participation; with multicultural students reporting significantly less connection to the school. Review of process notes maintained by mentors revealed specific group processes that may have influenced the ethnic identity, academic self-concept, and school connectedness of students; such as discussion and resolution of experiences of racism.