Nursing student participation in mentoring programs to promote adolescent health: Practical issues and future suggestions

SummaryThe purpose of this study was to explore the practical issues encountered by nursing students who participated in three mentoring programs to promote adolescent health as well as to suggest future mentoring program options for promoting healthy adolescent behavior. The principal investigator and the nursing students recorded practical issues as they arose and prepared memos on these issues offering suggestions for future programs. The written records and memos were reviewed and analyzed using a content analysis process. The content analysis revealed a number of issues and suggestions for future mentoring programs. These issues included the general advantages of mentors, growth in professional capability, progress in professional socialization, and the acquisition of health promotion strategies. Discussion on these issues allows us to assess the potential of nursing students as mentors in a mentoring program to promote adolescent health. Future program development includes program delivery within longer, more regularly structured periods of time while using a multifaceted collaborative approach that can then be evaluated with an appropriate scale to maximize the effects of the program.