Does Having Been Mentored Affect Subsequent Mentoring?

Background: How to be an effective mentor is typically not taught formally because good mentoring is thought to beget good mentoring, but there is little concrete data to support that connection.

Purpose: Scholars in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Nurse Faculty Scholars (NFS) program were surveyed to find out if the mentoring they received influenced their subsequent mentoring.

Method: The qualities that form the Mentorship Effectiveness Scale were used to investigate if the experience changed scholars' views of mentoring; open-ended questions provided an opportunity for scholars to describe additional insights.

Results: Thirty-nine out of 93 scholars (42%) replied. Scholars were influenced by the mentoring they received: they were now more inclined to give guidance on professional issues, provide constructive critiques, suggest resources, acknowledge mentees' contributions, and challenge mentees to extend their abilities. Scholars' experiences made them more aware of the power of mentoring, provided them with insights into how they might do the same, convinced them that mentoring shouldn't be confined to one advisor, made them realize that one style of mentoring doesn't work for everyone, and improved their likelihood of using an individual development plan when they mentored.

Conclusions: Effective mentoring does seem to beget effective mentoring because the interaction with mentors seems to leave a lasting impression and the perceived obligation to "pay it forward."