Effect of mentorship program on the stressors in the nursing students during their clinical practice

Background and Clinical training is the part of teaching for nurses. 73% of nursing students rated clinical teaching as poor. The unfamiliarity with hospital environment and fear of being evaluated by instructors for their performance has been considered the main stressor on the first day of training. In recent years, much attention has been paid to mentoring programs in nursing, and has been proposed as a method in prevention of anxiety, apprehension and ending employment, improving active learning, self esteem creating a proper condition for learning, and increasing nursing students cooperation. As no research has been performed in Iran, this study was conducted to determine the effect of tension during clinical training with nurses at Nasibeh College of Nursing and Midwifery during 2007-2008. In this semi- experimental study, 70 of second term nursing students on their nursing skill training were selected randomly through lottery, matched for age, sex, level of education and were divided in two case and control groups of equal numbers (35 in each group) In the case group, one senior student was designated as a mentor (in regard to nursing management training), while in the control group students were trained with instructor without mentor. For groups, pre and post practice of nursing skills examination was conducted. The data was collected through a questionnaire with two sections comprising of 9 questions about demographic features, and 19 regarding the tension of working environment. The obtained data was analyzed statistically using SPSS 15 soft ware. In this study, the highest score was from the fear of making mistakes, while the lowest score was from being asked a question by the instructor. Based on the paired t test, only in the case group (with mentor) decline of mean score related to the clinical stressor prior to and after nursing skill training was significant, t=5.64, df=34 and P<0.0005 Based on the results of this study, the mentorship program was effective on reduction of stressors in the subjects under the study. Therefore, it is suggested that the clinical education administrators of the nursing college will implement mentorship programs, which require the inter -organizational cooperation.