Hello SPN Members,
Mentorship – A Key Component of Your Professional Growth
As we enter this season of reflection and gratitude ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday, I’ve found myself thinking quite a bit about mentorship and the incredible impact that mentors can have on our career journeys. Mentorship sometimes seems like a nicety – something a little extra that’s good to have but that isn’t necessarily a requirement. Increasingly, though, I’ve come to think of mentorship as a must-have, regardless of your career phase or where you think your career is headed. Mentors help us to evaluate where we are and imagine what can be, and they can push us to think outside of the box and to tackle challenges or pursue opportunities that we might not have known about or had the confidence to go after. Mentorship also changes over the course of a career, as we grow, learn, and further define ourselves. When I was a new graduate nurse, for example, I was eager for clinical mentorship – I wanted to connect with those who were more experienced clinically and who could advise me on how to develop my clinical skills and to care for more complex patients and their families. As I gained clinical experience and began to think about the next steps in my career, my mentorship needs shifted – I sought out those who had knowledge and experience with advanced nursing roles as I contemplated what path I wanted to pursue. Once I entered a PhD program, I worked to develop my research mentorship circle so that I could work with and learn from those with research expertise and a track record of extramural funding – and I remain connected with and supported by several of those mentors today.
One of my biggest points of learning about mentoring was the concept of a mentorship circle – the idea that optimal mentorship comes not just from one individual, but rather from a group of mentors with diverse backgrounds and perspectives who can help to highlight a variety of considerations about your career journey and who can challenge your thinking to help you grow. I’ve had a wide variety of mentors in my mentorship circle over the course of my career – many of whom were nurses, but also physicians and non-clinical healthcare leaders, all of whom have stretched my thinking and shaped my career journey. I’ve also experienced learning and growth from stepping into the role of mentor, supporting more novice nurses or those looking to grow their research experience. Serving as a mentor has been a way to give back and to honor all of those who served as a mentor to me, but it has also been personally enriching – I continue to gain new ideas that expand my thinking as a result of these mentor/mentee relationships.
SPN has a strong commitment to mentorship – indeed, some of my most impactful mentors have been connections I’ve made through SPN! Many of our members report the development of mentorship relationships that have formed through involvement in SPN committees and task forces or at local chapter meetings. SPN has also taken the next step to formalize our commitment to mentorship through the SPN Mentorship Exchange, an exciting year-long program that provides 1:1 mentorship in one of 5 tracks that align with your career interests. We’ve had a successful first year of the program and will soon be recruiting for a second cohort of both mentors and mentees!
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Annual Conference Updates
Conference registration is open – we’re expecting robust attendance at this year’s event and had a record number of abstract submissions in our earlier calls for abstracts. Reserve your spot now and book your hotel rooms before the conference block sells out – we’re looking forward to Imagining the Possibilities with you in Disneyland this April!