Is a mentor in college similar to a nurse in medicine in creating good outcomes?
By Iris Tamura UA’ 26 and Jim Stellar
This blog builds on our last one in that there is something similar in a student’s mentoring relationship in college and the practice of nursing that IT wants to pursue after college. So what is that similarity? Let’s ask IT.
My (IT) answer is that both nurses and mentors rely on strong communication skills and they are more focused on the human connection than are the medical doctors in the hospital who may focus on the disease cure, and the professors in the classroom who may focus on teaching the material. The human connection is essential in nursing, as nurses are the ones who interact with the patients the most, and provide both clinical and emotional care. This is similar to mentors, as they provide more than professors do, with an added emotional connection and more personalized guidance, since they have the time and ability to get to know their students.
JS points out that, according to the old saying, if you do not know your doctor’s name, you are OK. If you do not know your nurse’s name, you are in trouble. I think the same is true for a university. Brilliant professors in the classroom can deliver compelling course material, maybe like watching an award-winning documentary. But more is really needed to touch the students personally and have them capitalize on and grow from that material, and that is mentoring. Also in my experience writing and reading letters of recommendation, mentors write much better letters than classroom teachers, with more detail and more compelling language since they really know the student. The problem is that, much like medicine, the ratio is wrong. There are simply too many students for too few professors in a university for there to be the time to develop that one-on-one mentoring relationship.
IT expects that she will find joy in the human interaction aspect of nursing and also in having a positive impact on people. Nurses are the medical professionals that patients primarily interact with and having a positive attitude and relationship towards them is critical to having a positive impact on those they treat. Nurses must build rapport with their patients and are the ones that they go to if they have a problem. Not only do the patients profit, but the medical profession profits too as the nurses get more information on how the patient is doing.
IT talks about the joy of nursing, or what she expects when she gets there. It is clearly based on the human interaction and the feeling that comes when you connect to someone and help them. That is the feeling I (JS) get from being a professor who engages in mentoring. Many of the other aspects of my job do give me joy, like teaching a class or publishing a book (or back in the day, a paper based on a neuroscience experiment). But there is something that I think is parallel to what must be the nursing experience that comes from mentoring and seeing a student develop a better and more confident approach to their future plans.
Human experiences and relationships have a significant impact on health and wellbeing. Positive experiences will result in better health and vice versa. Negativity in interactions and relationships puts an unnecessary strain on the body and mind, and leads to poor health and quality of life. As a patient, positive interactions with healthcare workers will yield better outcomes with recovery and happiness during recovery.
We think the same is true for mentoring in college, and frankly, both of us experienced this kind of stress when we were faced with every option in the world and needed to know how to begin to find a path toward a career. We do admit that a medical type of stress that nurses face can be much worse, but we also think that this kind of college stress of what to do with one’s life is underestimated. We also agree that this stress reduction can be an important outcome of mentoring as a mentor helps the student figure out a path in conversations and then can write a letter that supports the student’s next application, e.g. to a nursing program. That joy created is more than in just a stress reduction, but a building of energy. As the old saying goes. “If you love what you do, you never work a day in your life.” JS, being much older, can look back on what happened with his mentor in college and say that the old saying is correct.
A major aspect of nursing is social interaction, with nurses usually being the main medical professional that a patient will interact with. These interactions may seem harmless, but they can directly influence patient outcomes. Positive social interaction can lead to better health outcomes, by reducing stress and increasing happiness. Just like a nurse’s presence can help a patient manage fear, pain, and stress, a mentor can help encourage a student and alleviate academic stress and career anxiety.
Mentors and Nurses also share another similarity: they are both undervalued by the institutions in which they work. Universities put all their energy and resources into research and classes, but not into helping the individual student; Nurses are often left behind by the hospital, with staffing cuts, and lower wages. Both of these positions are essential, but not always treated as such. They pick up the social slack that is left behind by the other jobs, and create an environment that can effectively help patients and students achieve their goals.
