Yanhua Chen1, Roger Watson2, Andrea Hilton3. 1. Infectious Disease Department of the Affiliated Hospital of Luzhou Medical College, 646000, China. Electronic address: chen_yanhua25@163.com. 2. The University of Hull, HU6 7RX, UK. Electronic address: r.watson@hull.ac.uk. 3. The University of Hull, HU6 7RX, UK. Electronic address: a.hilton@hull.ac.uk.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: To understand nursing students' expectation from their mentors and assess mentors' performance, a scale of mentors' behavior was developed based on literature review and focus group in China. OBJECTIVES: This study aims to explore the structure of mentors' behavior. DESIGN: A cross-sectional survey. SETTING: Data were collected from nursing students in three hospitals in southwest China in 2014. PARTICIPANT: A total of 669 pre-registered nursing students in their final year clinical learning participated in this study. METHODS: Exploratory factor analysis and Mokken scale analysis was employed to explore the structure and hierarchical property of mentors' behavior. RESULTS: Three dimensions (professional development, facilitating learning and psychosocial support) were identified by factor analysis and confirmed by Mokken scaling analysis. The three sub-scales showed internal consistency reliability from 87% to 91%, and moderate to strong precision in ordering students' expectation about mentors' behavior and a small Mokken scale showing hierarchy was identified. CONCLUSION: Some insight into the structure of mentoring in nursing education has been obtained and a scale which could be used in the study of mentoring and in the preparation of mentors has been developed.
BACKGROUND: To understand nursing students' expectation from their mentors and assess mentors' performance, a scale of mentors' behavior was developed based on literature review and focus group in China. OBJECTIVES: This study aims to explore the structure of mentors' behavior. DESIGN: A cross-sectional survey. SETTING: Data were collected from nursing students in three hospitals in southwest China in 2014. PARTICIPANT: A total of 669 pre-registered nursing students in their final year clinical learning participated in this study. METHODS: Exploratory factor analysis and Mokken scale analysis was employed to explore the structure and hierarchical property of mentors' behavior. RESULTS: Three dimensions (professional development, facilitating learning and psychosocial support) were identified by factor analysis and confirmed by Mokken scaling analysis. The three sub-scales showed internal consistency reliability from 87% to 91%, and moderate to strong precision in ordering students' expectation about mentors' behavior and a small Mokken scale showing hierarchy was identified. CONCLUSION: Some insight into the structure of mentoring in nursing education has been obtained and a scale which could be used in the study of mentoring and in the preparation of mentors has been developed.