Mentors help out nursing students

By Maria Vega, On-Line Forty-Niner

Monday, October 26, 1998

Nursing students need more support than ever since health care is in the midst of change, said Nancy Smith, president of the Cal State Long Beach Nursing Alumni Association.

To help alleviate that concern, the Nursing Alumni Association is developing an alumni mentoring program for CSULB nursing students.

"This program is an opportunity for alumni who have been through it to serve as a guide for current nursing students," Smith said.

Thursday at the Soroptimist House, the association presented its results from surveys it passed out to current nursing students and alumni in regards to the idea of starting a mentoring program.

"We got an overwhelming response from both groups that wanted to participate in the program," Smith said.

Smith, a registered nurse who graduated from CSULB in 1996, said she believes there was a need for more support for nursing students when she started the Nursing Alumni Association in November of 1997.

"The academic support here is great, but students need more support to move into the rigorous nursing environment," Smith said.

Smith said she believes alumni could help students with real world issues concerning nursing in a time when they need to be more politically active and need to bring patient care to the forefront of the field.

Dr. Jarline Ketola, chairwoman of the association's mentoring program committee and CSULB nursing alumni, presented the results of the surveys to about 70 nursing alumni, faculty and students in the audience.

Ketola said the survey was distributed to 297 CSULB nursing students.

"Out of those students, 95 percent of them said they would want to sign up if such a mentoring program existed and 90 percent said they would definitely sign up if such a program is implemented," Ketola said.

Ketola also said 88 percent of students surveyed said they wanted an alumni as a mentor.

"Who better could guide a student but a person who has already been through it," said Dr. Adrienne Mayberry, nursing department professor and undergraduate advisor.

Helping people was the No. 1 reason students answered to when asked why they chose to study nursing. Plentiful career opportunities was the second most common reason and available employment in the medical field was third.

Smith said they hope to launch the pilot program next year in January before it will be implemented in September.

"The pilot program will be very scientific and will be geared toward researching whether the mentoring made a change," Smith said. "Our hypothesis is that it will make a change and students will feel more ready to go into the real world of nursing."

The program will consist of two groups. One will provide a discussion group of 10 to 12 students who will commit to a certain length of service to provide consistent support. The other will provide an open-discussion format in which alumni will come to discuss certain issues with students.

Smith said the association is looking for a person to run the mentoring program, but it must first find sponsors or funding grants.