THE EFFECT OF PEER MENTORING PROGRAM PERFORMANCE ON CLINICAL FUNCTION IN SECOND SEMESTER NURSING STUDENTS

Clinical education is important part of nursing teaching. The peer mentoring program is considered a learning strategy that helps nursing students with their individual and professional growth. This study was carried out to determine the impact of Peer Mentoring program performance on clinical function in second semester nursing students in Uremia Nursing and Midwifery Faculty. This research is a quasi-experimental study in which 44 second semester nursing students selected through census who met inclusion criteria were randomly divided into two groups as control (21) and intervention (23). The control group received clinical education through traditional method and the experiment group through Peer mentoring program-based education. In intervention group, a 7th semester nursing student as peer mentor was assigned 5-4 second semester nursing student and, took the role of guiding and supporting them. Students’ clinical function, pre test and post test were observed via checklist. Data was analyzed by SPSS software using, Chi², independent t test, Mann Whitney. Students clinical function achieved by the intervention group with Peer mentoring program -based education were significantly higher than that of the control group (P = 0.000). The difference between the mean scores clinical function in the two groups was significant (P = 0.001). Peer mentoring program -based education leads to developing nursing student's clinical function more than traditional method. Therefore, it is recommended to use this model in clinical education.