An exploration of the structure of mentors' behavior in nursing education using exploratory factor analysis and Mokken scale analysis

• Mentors’ behavior is conceptualized as an three-dimensional structure: psychosocial support, facilitating learning and professional development.
• Mentorship is hierarchical; some behaviours are perceived as more important than others.
• This tool can be useful to guide mentors’ behaviour and enhance the communication between students and mentors in China Policy implication: mentors’ training program should contain the three factors; treat students as learner and respect them should be emphasized.

BackgroundTo 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.ObjectivesThis study aims to explore the structure of mentors' behavior.DesignA cross-sectional survey.SettingData were collected from nursing students in three hospitals in southwest China in 2014.ParticipantA total of 669 pre-registered nursing students in their final year clinical learning participated in this study.MethodsExploratory factor analysis and Mokken scale analysis was employed to explore the structure and hierarchical property of mentors' behavior.ResultsThree 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.ConclusionSome 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.