Building research competence in nursing through mentoring.
OBJECTIVE
To explore how mentoring can be used to build research competence in nursing in various professional and geographic settings.


METHODS
The traditional concept of mentoring in interdisciplinary health professions and its application to nursing research.


METHODS
Literature review of MEDLINE and CINAHL databases 1990-2001 and personal reflections on mentoring and mentored experiences.


RESULTS
Mentoring relationship models identified include: traditional mentor and protégé, team, peer, inclusive, and mentoring forward. E-mentoring strategies facilitate interactions for long-distance relationships. Discrete projects, multiple mentor sources, and mutually beneficial peer relationships can enable mentoring across one's career. Psychosocial dimensions of mentoring support creative work. When scholarly productivity with funded research is the desired outcome, intense involvement of a protégé with an expert researcher is essential.


CONCLUSIONS
Choices among mentoring models can be made in accordance with resources, priorities, and objectives congruent with a given nursing setting and time, but optimum scholarly productivity requires experts and sustained support.
Byrne
Mary W
MW
Columbia University School of Nursing, 617 West 168 Street, New York, NY 10032, USA. mwb4@columbia.edu
Keefe
Maureen R
MR
D004506:Education, Nursing / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008611:Mentors; D015399:Nursing Research