University of Rhode Island Partners with Miriam Hospital on Nursing Mentorship Program

The University of Rhode Island (URI) has partnered with The Miriam Hospital in Providence on a nursing mentorship program that allows registered nurses to work one-on-one with seniors from URI’s College of Nursing. The clinical experience is called a Dedicated Education Unit and is a mentoring model developed in Australia to address nursing faculty shortages.

Katherine Paquette, assistant clinical professor of nursing at URI, spoke with Today.URI.edu about the mentoring model: “It has evolved into a need for clinical experiences that facilitate the transition into professional roles. It’s a model that has caught on because it is so successful in preparing students to practice.”

The mentorship program works by pairing each RN in the dedicated unit with a student, requiring them to work side by side for more than 100 hours during the student’s final semester of nursing school. Students report to duty on the nurses’ schedule and help care for the nurses’ patients. Most clinical settings pair one faculty member or clinical nurse with eight students, but pairing nurses with one students allows the student to learn the vital competency they need for successful practice outside of the classroom.

Feedback on the program has been highly positive. Students report developing confidence in themselves, critical thinking skills, and time management skills. Several students have also been hired by the hospital following their graduation, and chosen to become student mentors to help give back to the program. The program currently supports only 16-20 student assignments, but the university hopes to expand it so that all their senior students can participate.