An external mentor program: stimulus for faculty research development.

This article describes a faculty development model to stimulate rapid growth in research and scholarship in a school of nursing during an institution-wide initiative to strengthen the research stature of the university. The program was designed to establish targeted mentoring relationships with productive researchers from institutions outside the home institution to assist faculty with research program development. The external mentor program is described along with the methods of implementation and outcomes after 2.5 years. The success of this program has led to adoption of the model by other schools in the university.