Mentorship Practices and Perceptions of Nursing Faculty at the Aga Khan University in Uganda

Background: Nursing training institutions rely on nurse practitioners as faculty, but expertise in clinical nursing does not always translate into academic proficiency. Newly hired nursing faculty are often challenged with their new work environment, and some lack knowledge of teaching pedagogies. Therefore, mentorship is used to help them transition into their new roles. This study assessed the mentorship experiences, practices, and perceptions of new nursing and midwifery faculty at the Aga Khan University School of Nursing and Midwifery (SONAM) in Uganda. Methodology: This study used a phenomenological design. Data were collected in semi-structured interviews with 11 participants, and data saturation was reached. Data were organized with NVivo 12 Pro and analyzed with framework analysis. Findings: The main themes that emerged were mentorship practices, perceptions about mentorship, and proposed mentorship guidelines. Participants perceived mentorship positively but noted a lack of structure, absence of formal guidelines, and reliance on assigned mentors. Furthermore, participants identified a need to develop guidelines regarding what should be done during mentorship, the incentives involved, and the required mentor-mentee relationship. Conclusions and Recommendation: Although mentorship has a substantial role in ensuring new faculty smoothly transition into their role at SONAM, it is currently not structured and lacks incentives to motivate mentors. Developing mentorship guidelines will help streamline the mentorship process. This requires a quasi-experimental study to ascertain the effectiveness of the suggested guidelines in improving mentorship for new faculty.