After receiving her RPN designation in 2016, Emilija Stojsavljevic quickly excelled to become Assistant Manager of Resident Care and Education Lead at a long-term care community in Ontario. She attributes her success, in large part, to the mentorship she received as a novice nurse.
“This is why I am where I am today. It’s because of the support and guidance of others – of experienced nurses that believed in me.”
In 2012, WeRPN developed the Mentorship Program as part of a larger strategic initiative to support RPNs in their career development. At the time, few resources were available for RPNs interested in advancing their careers beyond bedside nursing, so WeRPN collaborated with Gail Donner and Mary Wheeler, experts in career support services, to develop this important platform.
As RPNs advance in their careers, they inevitably encounter new challenges, obstacles and enrichment opportunities. WeRPN’s Mentorship Program helps RPNs navigate these changes and realize their career goals by establishing long-term relationships between experienced and novice nurses to encourage mutual professional growth.
The Mentorship Program contains an online search engine where mentees can search for mentors that best suit their needs. They can read profiles, filter through bios, and contact their chosen mentor. Once connected, the Program offers resources to support this new partnership. This includes tip sheets to help prepare for meetings, sample questions for mentors, mentorship relationship agreements, and mentorship action plans.
Beyond just connecting two people, WeRPN’s Mentorship Program is designed to create lasting, enriching, supportive relationships that have a meaningful impact on those involved.
In many cases, mentees become mentors for new novice nurses.
Both mentees and mentors benefit from this partnership. Mentors report a sense of personal accomplishment, increased job satisfaction, improved leadership skills, more promotion opportunities, and a renewed interest in their careers. Mentees report feeling more eager to learn and more confident performing their roles. Novice nurses have someone to turn to when questions arise, making them feel better supported and less likely to become overwhelmed by workplace stress.
Now over a decade after its inception, this program is more important than ever. The global pandemic has exacerbated Ontario’s nursing shortage, causing healthcare workers to take on heavier workloads. Many students have shifted to online models, leaving them feeling disconnected, while current nursing professionals are leaving healthcare at unprecedented rates.
These new realities make mentorship crucial to foster engagement and mitigate burnout. Research shows that, in addition to boosting confidence and self-esteem, mentoring creates enhanced coping strategies and fosters increased job satisfaction.
These are just some reasons Emilija chose to join WeRPN’s Mentorship Program. As a student in 2016, Emilija was exposed to various programs, education initiatives and career supports available to novice RPNs.
When she progressed in her career, she knew it would be important to uplift others like she’d been encouraged.
“This is why I am where I am today. It’s because of the support and guidance of others – of experienced nurses that believed in me.”
Today, she oversees clinical nursing programs and educates nurses and nonregistered team members. She quickly rose to a higher management position and credits her mentors for developing her practice and her commitment to teaching. “Establishing that partnership helped propel my career. My mentor provided so much support, and their knowledge and competencies really guided my practice.”
Emilija enjoys seeing her mentees develop into more effective and inspired practitioners. Working as a mentor, she continues to learn from and with her mentees. Educating new team members pushes her to sharpen her professional skills and remain current in the constantly evolving healthcare landscape. She must also learn new teaching methods to cater to students with various learning styles, diverse interests and needs. In her mentorship relationships, she seeks to highlight students’ strengths and address the gaps in their knowledge.
Nursing is a collaborative profession. For Emilija, engaging in a mentorship relationship highlights the importance of communication skills nurses need in all areas of their practice. Beyond just imparting nursing knowledge, a key role of mentors is to demonstrate the decisiveness, empathy and patience integral to healthcare administration.
In this mutually beneficial partnership, mentors and mentees work together to hone their practical knowledge and skills.
Emilija is passionate about nursing and is always considering how to improve outcomes for the population that she serves. “Mentoring is an investment in novice nurses and an accomplishment for those that mentor them. It’s about knowing that you’re sending someone out there who is confident and competent, that they will be prudent nurses who do the best they can.”
The benefits of this relationship extend far beyond mentor and mentee. Organizations that implement these programs indicate a marked increase in retention. In Ontario, mentorship programs will become an essential part of the strategy to improve nurses’ working conditions and the state of the nursing profession.
“What we do greatly impacts the public, and we are committed to protecting them,” says Emilija. “The more invested we are in each other, the better the outcomes. That’s why I think mentorship is so important.”
