Nurse managers’ perspectives on nurses’ performance in mentorship program

Abstract

Objective

The aim of this study was to explore the nurse managers’ perspectives on nurses’ performance in a mentorship program.

Method

A cross-sectional survey was conducted on 51 nurse managers in Hospital Tengku Ampuan Afzan (HTAA), Kuantan, Pahang, by using modified and self-developed questionnaire with the Cronbach's alpha value 0.994. The data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics such as central tendency, frequency and percentage.

Results

The gender of respondents was predominantly female (100%). The mean age is 45.41 (SD ± 4.51). In terms of level of education, the majority of the respondents (76.5%) were having a diploma. The majority has been in practice as a staff nurse between 11 to 20 years, and most of them have been practicing as nurse managers for about five years and less. Meanwhile, results showed that the nurse managers had positive perceptions upon newly graduated nurses’ performance in the mentorship program, concerning on their effective communication, professional development and creative thinking.

Conclusions

It is vital to identify the effectiveness of the mentorship program among nurses; hence, it enhances job satisfaction among new nurses.

Introduction

Nurses often faced a variety of challenges in order to maintain quality of patients’ care, in line with the changes in medicine and nursing profession. Nurses need to be mastered in all aspects and play really important roles in providing effective and efficient care to the patients. They need to deal with emotional and professional demand of many people, especially the patients.

With the development of advanced technologies and various specializations in medicine, there are many requests for higher expectations and demands for nurses from a variety of specialization as well. Moreover, as a result, it is more stressful and challenging for newly graduated nurses as they face problems to adapt to their new professional career and environment. Dyess and Sherman¹ explored that many new nurses are lacking of clinical skills and judgment needed to provide safe, competent practice. This situation puts newly graduated nurses under stress and pressure, which reflect a high turnover rate within the first year of employment².

Therefore, it is vital for the nurses maintain the superior knowledge for practice³. Komaratat and Oumtanee⁴ also mentioned that there is an importance of improving knowledge and the ability among nurses in order to work effectively. At this moment, in time, new nurse mentoring programs are popping up and upgrade nursing profession. It is one of the educational approaches in helping for the newly graduated nurses to become competent and start their career as a qualified nurse readily and happily.

Abiddin⁵ defined a mentor as someone who teaches advices and coaches the student individually and builds close long-term relationship. The mentor will help the newly graduated nurses in performing their tasks and assignments. Having great experiences, especially in the specialized area helps the mentor to guide and deliver knowledge and skills to the newly graduated nurses, so that they are able to develop their essential skills in clinical settings. The mentor holds huge responsibility towards preparing future nurses who are competent enough to serve in the community⁶. Just like the senior staff nurses who act as a mentor in mentorship, newly graduated nurses who act as a mentee also play important roles and require full commitment in order to strengthen their competencies. The success of the mentorship program is closely tied to the relationship of the mentor and mentee. However, it is not easy to maintain the relationship as it needs commitment from both mentor and mentee. The successfulness of this program also can benefit all, especially to the nursing profession.

For this reason, this study wants to explore the nurse managers’ perspectives on nurses’ performance in a mentorship program. It is vital to identify the effectiveness of the mentorship program among nurses in Malaysia in terms of communication, professional development and creative thinking; hence, it enhances the quality of work environments as well as the improvement of job satisfaction among nurses.

Method

This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at Hospital Tengku Ampuan Afzan (HTAA), Kuantan, Pahang, by using the convenience sampling method. This study involved 51 nurse managers in the ward of HTAA using the modified and self-developed questionnaires with the Cronbach's alpha value 0.994. The modified questionnaires were taken from AMSN Mentoring Program-Mentor Guide book. The questionnaires were divided into 4 parts: part A involved the respondents’ socio-demographic data (age, gender, level of study, working experience as a registered staff nurse and working experience as a nurse manager); part B involved questionnaires to assess nurse managers’ perceptions on concerning effective communication among newly graduated nurses; part C involved questionnaires regarding the nurse managers’ perspectives on professional development of newly graduated nurses, while part D involved the questionnaires regarding the nurse managers’ perspectives on nurses’ creative thinking skills. Parts B, C and D were measured with five-point Likert scale. The pre-test survey was conducted with 15 registered staff nurses at Pantai Hospital in BatuPahat to test the reliability of the modified and self-developed questionnaire. The Cronbach's Alpha was run with good internal consistency of 0.994. The questionnaire also was translated into Malay language by using forward-translation, back-translation and was sought for the consultation with expertise.

Results

A total of 51 respondents had involved in this study as required for the estimated total sample size calculation. The respondents were predominantly female (100%). Most of the respondents are 48 years old (15.7%) and ranging from 38 to 57 years old, with the mean age 45.41 (SD ± 4.513). In terms of level of education, among 2 respondents were having a certificate (3.9%), 39 respondents were having a diploma (76.5%) and 10 respondents were having a degree (19.6%). None of the respondents were holding master and PhD level. Meanwhile, for the working experiences as staff nurse, 15 respondents were having experiences about 16 to 20 years and also more than 20 years’ experience (29.4%) and the majority of the respondents were having an experience about one to five years as nurse manager (80.4%). Table 1 showed the socio-demographic distributions of the respondents.

Table 1.

Distribution of socio-demographic data of the respondents (N = 51).

Variables	Frequency (N)	Percentage (%)	Mean (± SD)
Age			45.41 (± 4.513)
38	3	5.9
39	7	13.7
41	2	3.9
43	3	5.9
44	3	5.9
45	6	11.8
46	4	7.8
47	5	9.8
48	8	15.7
49	3	5.9
50	4	7.8
52	1	2.0
57	2	3.9
Gender
Female	51	100
Level of study
Certificate	2	3.9
Diploma	39	76.5
Degree	10	19.6
Working experience as staff nurse			3.67 (± 1.143)
1-5 years	1	2.0
6-10 years	9	17.6
11-15 years	11	21.6
16-20 years	15	29.4
> 20 years	15	29.4
Working experience as nurse manager			1.25 (± 0.595)
1-5 years	41	80.4
6-10 years	8	15.7
11-15 years	1	2.0

There were nine questions regarding the nurses’ performance in terms of their effective communication. All 51 respondents (100%) show positive perspectives on nurses’ performance concerning on effective communication (Figure 1) when all respondents achieved score more than 23, with the mean score 37.41 (SD ± 4.509).There were 14 questions regarding the nurses’ performance in terms of their professional development. Out of 51 respondents, about 50 respondents (98%) showed positive perceptions of the mentorship program among newly graduated nurses in terms of professional development. Meanwhile, the other 2% (n = 1) showed negative perceptions, with the mean score 56.22 (SD ± 8.193). The detail results were shown in Figure 2.

Figure 1.

Nurses’ performance on effective communication.

Figure 2.

Nurses’ performance on professional development.

Figure 3 indicated the frequency and percentage of nurses’ performance related to creative thinking responded by 51 respondents. There were eight questions altogether. About 50 respondents (98%) had positive perspectives of the mentorship program concerning on creative thinking, with the mean score 31.67 (SD ± 5.046).

Figure 3.

Nurses’ performance on creative thinking.

Figure 4 presented the respondents’ perspectives on their nurses’ performance in a mentorship program. The result showed that 98% (n=50) of the respondents were having positive perceptions of the mentorship program among newly graduated nurses, with the mean of the total score is 125.29 (SD ± 16.953). The minimum score is 75 and the maximum score is 155. Meanwhile, only 2% (n=1) respondent was having negative perceptions of the mentorship program.

Figure 4.

Perspectives on nurses’ performance.

Discussion

According to the results of this study, generally, nurse managers had positive perceptions on their newly graduated nurses’ communication skills. Based on the previous research done by Komaratat and Oumtanee⁴ showed that mentorship program had a significant effect on cultivating communication skills and human relationship among the newly graduated nurses. Chang and Hancock⁷ stated that the newly graduated nurses had improved their communication after exposing to mentorship program as they received some guidance and training from their mentors.

Regarding the professional development, mostly nurse managers had positive perceptions on newly graduated nurses’ performances. Bally⁸ stated that the mentorship program promotes professional development among newly graduated nurses. Professional development is a crucial aspect in nursing profession as it allows the nurses to develop, maintain and expand competency in practice. It is also stated in the CNA (Canadian Nurses Association) policy declared that registered nurses need to involve in continuous learning to develop skills and knowledge, so that they are competent enough in delivering direct care to the patients⁹.

Concerning creative thinking of new nurses, majority of nurse managers clarified positive perspectives on their new nurses’ creative thinking skills. Based on previous research done by Wangensteen¹⁰, newly graduated nurses demonstrated a positive perception towards creative thinking. In addition, the majority of the respondents claimed that the newly graduated nurses were having ‘good’ performance in facilitating the process of ethical decision making in patient care after introducing mentorship program. This result was supported by the research done by Komaratat and Oumtanee⁴ which reported that the newly graduated nurses’ competency in decision making was improved after conducting mentorship model. The mentorship program allowed the nursing mentor to guide, train and support the newly graduated nurses to make own decision freely especially during life-threatening events.

In this study, the majority of the respondents also rated ‘good’ for the statement ‘ability to modify the plan of care based on the patient's response to therapy’. It indicates that the nurse managers agreed that their newly graduated nurses were able to make their own decision and obtained high-level decision making skills. Creative and critical thinking were developed among the newly graduated nurses as they received guidances from their mentor.

Acknowledgement

The authors were grateful to the entire respective administrative group, nurse managers in Hospital Tengku Ampuan Afzan (HTAA), Kuantan, Pahang, Malaysia and staffs who helped to run this study smoothly.