Mentorship in Developing Transformational Leaders to Advance Health Policy: Creating a Culture of Health

Historically, mentoring in nursing has focused primarily on either moving novice nurses to a more advanced level of expertise in the clinical setting, assisting advanced practice nurses to reach professional excellence, or mentoring students and junior faculty researchers to expand evidence-based practice in nursing for colleges of nursing and nursing science. These efforts have achieved success at the individual and organizational level; however, nursing has yet to achieve a “culture” of mentorship within the profession.1, 2, 3 and 4 Nowhere is this gap more pronounced than in mentorship of future nurse leaders with the specific intent to develop the knowledge, skills, and political savvy to advance health policy and create better systems of care. The nursing profession is the largest segment of the nation's healthcare workforce, yet nurses remain grossly underrepresented in major leadership positions within the healthcare system and within those organizations empowered to develop and implement health policy.5 and 6 In order to ensure that nurses are ready to assume these leadership roles, leadership development and mentoring programs need to be made available for nurses at all levels.