Establishing a Mentorship Program Essay

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Health organizations can experience a lot of employee turnover as well as a lot of employee non-performance: talk to any nurse about the phenomenon of "burnout" in the nursing profession, or talk to any hospital administrator about the problem of employee retention, and these issues will be described as relatively commonplace. These problems lead to an issue with what we must call "succession" -- the idea that, as an older generation of professionals passes on, the younger generation is ready to take over. The ideal way to deal with succession issues in a health organization (as well as handle issues such as employee training or employee non-performance) is through a mentorship program. However, a number of issues can hamper the installation of a successful mentorship program, and must be addressed.

One of the chief barriers in establishing such a program, however, has been outlined by Ledlow and Coppola (2013), as they observe that both cultural and institutional bias tilts in the direction of wanting to offer mentoring opportunities to white males; there are many difficulties with this bias, not least of which is the notion that American demographics are fast shifting away from a majority white population. In terms of a succession plan, it may very well undercut the mentorship program altogether if two in five younger employees is Latino, matching the emerging demographic trends in the American population. Ledlow and Coppola (2013) suggest that in selecting mentors, "white male leaders should be aware of the potential for disproportional mentoring opportunities: people of color and females should receive mentoring opportunities in the workplace as well" (396).

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The important aspect is to be conscious of the bias, and to bear it in mind when establishing mentor relationships. However, this could arguably be seen as part of a larger issue which is paramount in instituting a mentorship program, which is that the careful selection of mentors is necessary for the success of any such program. Mentors have to be motivated, empathetic, and skilled with the communication of knowledge to fellow professionals. To have mentorship be mandatory, or to offer too great a financial incentive for participation, will only ensure the presence of undermotivated mentors, which defeats the whole purpose.

The next issue with any mentorship program is the establishment of clear and purposefully strategic goals for the program. If succession is the chief goal, then obviously an age disparity in the mentorship program should be welcomed. However, succession may not be the only desirable goal that an organization wishes to achieve with a mentorship program. For example, the nationwide lack of skilled nursing professionals may necessitate a program that can facilitate the transfer of skilled expertise. In this case, a peer mentoring model should also be considered. Bryant and Terborg (2008) define peer mentoring as "an intentional one-on-one relationship between employees at the same or similar lateral level in the firm that involves a more experienced employee providing….....

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