THE LANGUAGE OF MENTORING IN A HEALTH-CARE ENVIRONMENT

In this article, 4 models were tested on the relations among mentoring , job expectations, job reward value, job involvement, and organizatio nal commitment of hospital nurses. In the model with the best fit to t he data, mentoring and job expectations were positively related to job reward value. Organizational commitment and job involvement were incr eased by job reward value. A direct effect on organizational commitmen t was found for mentor assistance in learning skills. Specific methods used by mentors to convey supportive communication to their proteges included encouraging them to do their best, helping them gain addition al training, providing support and encouragement when others criticize , helping deal with jealousy, and providing proteges with needed infor mation. Nurse mentors were admired for standing up to administration a nd for challenging unfair decisions, thoughtless actions, and lack of respect on the part of administrators, doctors, and patients. Nurses i ndicated that working hard and not having anyone notice, being frequen tly criticized and rarely rewarded, and being exposed to serious disea ses were particularly challenging and stressful aspects of nursing. Im plications of this study for nurses and those working in health care e nvironments are that mentoring and organizational commitment may be av enues for increasing the degree to which nurses feel that their job is rewarding.