A PREARRANGED MENTORSHIP PROGRAM - CAN IT WORK LONG-DISTANCE

Mentoring is a supportive and nurturing relationship between an expert and a novice. A formal mentorship program was embarked on by the Sout hern Council era Collegiate Education in Nursing during the early 1990 s. The purpose of this article is to share the unique experience of tw o faculty who were assigned as mentors through a written inventory pro cess and who were able to establish a successful mentorship, overcomin g the barriers of time, distance, and an apparent mismatch of interest s and clinical skills. The authors recommend mentoring as an important professional endeavor. Everyone-mentor, protege, acid the nursing pro fession as a whole-gains during the mentoring process. Copyright (C) 1 998 by W.B. Saunders Company.