Effective Mentorship to Improve Clinical Decision Making and a Positive Identity: A Comparative Study in Turkey and Portugal

Abstract

Abstract—In some countries there is a growing concern about the shortage of nurses and the students dropping out. Research evidences show the importance of clinical education and mentorship in shaping nurses' identity and promote retention. The purpose of this exploratory study is to compare the mentorship system in two different organizations. Participants were 261 students, 126 from Porto and 135 from Izmir. To gather data a questionnaire was used (CLASI-M). Findings of this study suggest that although nursing students appear to be satisfied with their clinical learning, they have notorious difficulties to understand the meaning of complex care and factors which give rise to complexity. At the end of the study, some specific hypotheses were indicated to be tested in future research. Suggestions are made for improving the quality of the mentorship systems in nursing education.