title: Confirming mentorship.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Mentorship is related to nurses' success in nursing practice linked to professionalism, nursing quality improvement and self-confidence.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To elucidate mentorship of recently registered nurses' view of themselves with regard to their development of nursing competencies by means of the Sympathy-Acceptance-Understanding-Competence (SAUC) model for confirming mentorship.
  
  
  METHODS
  Questionnaires, personal interviews and focus group interviews were used for evaluation 2 years after the completion of a year of mentorship, the subjects being eight nurses.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The study showed that novice nurses evaluated their mentors as confirming, which is understood as a key factor for novice nurses' positively reinforced self-relation (perception of themselves) and self-knowledge linked to improved competencies in nursing practice such as more secure and motivated to nurse (S-phase), increased capacity to verbalize nursing situations (A-phase) and to reflect upon and evaluate patient situations based on patients' unique identities as individuals (U-phase), and improved abilities to support patients' own resources as individuals from a more holistic view and to establish collaboration with other professionals.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Mentorship enabled novice nurses to nurse in a more reflective and holistic way, and their positively reinforced self-relation may be understood as a crucial ingredient for maintaining quality standards in nursing in the future.
authors.affiliation: Visby Hospital, Sweden.
authors.forename: Barbro
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ronsten
authors.forename: Ewa
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Andersson
authors.forename: Barbro
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Gustafsson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000592:standards*; D004509:Education, Nursing, Continuing / Q000458:organization & administration*; D004645:Empathy; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D006801:Humans; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D008297:Male; D008611:Mentors / Q000523:psychology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D017145:Models, Educational; D016294:Models, Nursing; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009042:Motivation; D015402:Nursing Education Research; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000193:education / Q000523:psychology; D036301:Qualitative Research; D020377:Self Efficacy; D012944:Social Support; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013548:Sweden; D017749:Total Quality Management / Q000458:organization & administration; D035502:Trust