As we interview people for positions at our workplace, one of the main things I look for in their curriculum vitae is articles and presentations. I am not looking for the number of articles or journals where their work was published, or the titles of their presentations, but instead the number of authors. More specifically, did they collaborate with other colleagues in their work or go at it alone? Are they the sole author of their work, always the first author, or are they in a list of authors with various positions?
This speaks volumes to me as to whether the person is working with their colleagues or going at it alone.
Mentoring is defined by Alleman (1984) as “a relationship between two people in which one person with greater rank, experience or expertise teaches, guides or helps others to develop both professionally and personally ”(p 329). Successful mentoring relationships have been proven in nursing to help fill the practice gap, improve job satisfaction, promote collegiality, establish team building and improve clinical and academic performances (Matin, 2017). Formally establishing mentors for new employees and new graduates starts a bond intra professionally that nurses desperately need to be successful and forbear the very nature of their emotionally and physically demanding roles as health care professionals.
Even if your workplace has a formal mentorship program or whether it does not, we should be thinking about how we can carry someone with us. Informal mentorship is when an experienced person chooses another person to pour into. The difference here is the term “chooses”. This should be on the minds of every experienced person and can be a bond that benefits the mentor as well as the mentee. Start thinking today about someone whom you can mentor and about how you can take one or all these steps to become an informal mentor to a colleague.
