Mentorship in nursing academia: a systematic review protocol

Abstract

BackgroundMentorship is perceived as vital to attracting, training, and retaining nursing faculty members and to maintaining high-quality education programs. While there is emerging evidence to support the value of mentorship in academic medicine, the extant state of the evidence for mentorship in nursing academia has not been established. We describe a protocol for a mixed-methods systematic review to critically appraise the evidence for mentorship in nursing academia.MethodsStudies examining the effectiveness of mentorship interventions with nursing faculty who teach in registered nursing education programs will be included. Mentee, mentor, and nursing education institutional outcomes will be explored. Quantitative, qualitative, and mixed method studies will be eligible for inclusion, without restrictions on publication status, year of publication, or language. We will search electronic databases (for example, MEDLINE, CINAHL, ERIC) and gray literature (for example, conference proceedings, key journals, relevant organizational websites) for relevant citations. Using pilot-tested screening and data extraction forms, two reviewers will independently review the studies in three steps: (1) abstract/title screening, (2) full-text screening of accepted studies, and (3) data extraction of accepted studies. Studies will be aggregated for meta-synthesis (qualitative) and meta-analysis (quantitative), should the data permit.DiscussionThis study is the first systematic review of existing global evidence for mentorship in nursing academia. It will help identify key evidence gaps and inform the development and implementation of mentorship interventions. The mentorship outcomes that result from this review could be used to guide the practice of mentorship to increase positive outcomes for nursing faculty and the students they teach and ultimately effect improvements for the patients they care for. This review will also identify key considerations for future research on mentorship in nursing academia and the enhancement of nursing science.

Cross-cultural Experiences during a Visiting Scholar Program: “…A Start[ing] not a Finishing Point”

“…These benefits will increase the ability to obtain funding and retain faculty in universities (Nick et al, 2012;Ronsten, Andersson, & Gustafsson, 2005). Research on the development of cross-cultural learning skills is a recent development (Nowell, White, Mrklas, & Norris, 2015). We hope that programs such as the VSP will contribute to positive organizational cultures by encouraging new candidates and new programs of this kind to emerge, increasing career satisfaction, boosting morale and self-confidence, and enhancing professional development.…”

Mixed methods systematic review exploring mentorship outcomes in nursing academia

“…The study protocol is published elsewhere (Nowell et al . ). A convergent qualitative synthesis design, as outlined by Pluye and Hong (), was used where results from qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods studies were transformed into qualitative findings.…”

“…) were used to structure an initial a priori framework (supplementary Table S1) for the synthesis of mentorship outcomes relevant to the mentee, mentor and nursing education institutions (Nowell et al . ).…”

“…The review design followed the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI 2014) approach for systematic reviews of both quantitative and qualitative research and the PRISMA (Moher et al 2009) and ENTREQ (Tong et al 2012) reporting guidelines. The study protocol is published elsewhere (Nowell et al 2015). A convergent qualitative synthesis design, as outlined by Pluye and Hong (2014), was used where results from qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods studies were transformed into qualitative findings.…”

“…Third, the JBI quantitative study critical appraisal checklist did not assess ethical considerations; therefore, we added an additional question from the qualitative study checklist: 'Is the research ethical according to current criteria or, for recent studies, is there evidence of ethical approval by an appropriate body?' Studies in medicine (Sambunjak et al 2006, Kashiwagi et al 2013, education (Ehrich et al 2004) and business (Allen et al 2004, Underhill 2006, Eby et al 2008 were used to structure an initial a priori framework (supplementary Table S1) for the synthesis of mentorship outcomes relevant to the mentee, mentor and nursing education institutions (Nowell et al 2015).…”