Bruin Brief 2023-01-06 Mentoring PhD Students

From Academic Programs
January 6th 2023

Mentoring PhD Students

We advise and mentor Nursing PhD students because we care about their development as scientists and stewards of the discipline. Quality mentorship promotes students’ academic success and assures their timely progress to degree. Strong mentor-mentee relationships built during the educational program live on, and blossom into mutually-beneficial, career-long collaborations.

High-Quality Mentoring

Four themes encapsulate the nature of high-quality mentoring relationships for Nursing PhD students:

mentor-mentee fit (e.g., personality, expertise),
multi-mentor teams,
mutual benefit, and
mentor-mentee contracts that are based on shared commitment to the student’s individual goals

These themes apply throughout PhD students’ development, from pre-candidacy mentoring by the advisor to dissertation mentoring by the dissertation chair (Smith et al., 2021).

The importance of mentoring PhD students is prominent throughout the 2022 AACN publication, Research-Focused Doctoral Program in Nursing: Pathways to Excellence Position Statement. Recommendations for faculty mentors, advisors, and dissertation chairs include, but are not limited to: meeting on a regular basis, counseling on possible career paths, creating individual development plans that map a 5-to-10 year career trajectory, sharing knowledge and expertise, using diverse mentoring teams, and facilitating professional networking by supporting attendance at regional and national scholarly events.

Resources for Faculty Mentors
UCLA and SON provide multiple resources to support faculty mentoring of PhD students.

UCLA campus resources - (faculty)

o Advancing Faculty Mentorship Practices (AFMP)- focuses on enrichment of research mentoring practices

UCLA campus resources-(students) Graduate Resource Center- providing academic, health and well-being resources for students
UCLA Graduate Research Mentorship Program-designed to assist doctoral students in acquiring and developing advanced research skills under faculty mentorship. Open to all UCLA Doctoral students in years 1-3 of study (provided they have not advanced to candidacy). The department nominates student(s) to Graduate Division.
UCLA Graduate Summer Research Mentorship Program-designed to promote opportunities to work closely with a faculty mentor and provide financial support to UCLA Doctoral students. Student must apply by the deadline of Feb 1, 2023
SON PhD Student Handbook (guidance for advisors and students)
SON Faculty Handbook (guidance for faculty)
PhD Program Counseling/Academic Planning Meeting form/via eValue to prompt advisee meetings and individual development plans
Annual PhD Program Progress Report via eValue to monitor and assure timely program progression
Student Affairs Office - Associate Dean of Student Affairs, Director of Student Services
PhD Program Director, Associate Dean of Student Affairs, Associate Dean for Academic Programs Associate Dean for Research, Associate Dean of Equity, Diversity & Inclusion, Dean School of Nursing
National research mentoring organizations-(open to students and faculty)

o National Research Mentoring Network-(NRMN)-They implement and disseminate innovative, evidence based best practices to improve mentorship relationships at institutions across the country

o Western Institute of Nursing—offers opportunities for student awards, research grants, professional service, networking with scientists in the West at the annual conference, preconferences on research and education topics, and guidance about how to prepare abstracts and professional presentations

Aligning What’s Expected and What’s Available

Another way to consider how the question of how to best advise PhD students is to line up what is recommended and how we can implement those best practices.

AACN Pathways to Excellence recommendations for successful advising of PhD students	SON Resources for successful advising
Meeting on a regular basis with advisor or chair Counseling on possible career paths Sharing knowledge and expertise Individual development plans	eValue prompts advisor to hold a Counseling/Academic Planning Meeting with PhD student Hold meetings quarterly plus ad hoc Document meetings promptly via eValue form
Assessment of progression toward graduation	eValue PhD Program Counseling/Academic Planning Meeting form/annual prompt
Facilitating professional networking by supporting attendance at regional and national scholarly events.	Funding to attend and present at WIN, Sigma Theta Tau, other meetings in clinical or research specialty Presenting at SON Research Day
Diverse Mentoring Teams	Grad Division Minimum Standards for PhD Committees at UCLA UCLA Research Centers and Groups CTSI

Recommendations for mentoring toolkits designed to support emerging nurse scholars suggest inserting resources about understanding mentoring, how to choose a mentor and foster a working mentoring relationship, and defining goals for mentoring (Foster & Hill, 2019). The relationship expectations and outcomes of mentoring will depend on us and the relationships we build with our PhD students.

References

American Association of Colleges of Nursing. The Research-Focused Doctoral Program in Nursing: Pathways to Excellence Position Statement. February 24, 2022.

Foster, T., & Hill, J. J. (2019). Mentoring and Career Satisfaction Among Emerging Nurse Scholars. International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching & Mentoring, 17(2).

Smith, A. B., Umberfield, E., Granner, J. R., Harris, M., Liestenfeltz, B., Shuman, C., & Smith, E. M. L. (2021). Development and preliminary testing of the collaboration for leadership and innovation in mentoring survey: An instrument of nursing PhD mentorship quality. Nurse education today, 98, 104747.

Significant contributors

Wendie Robbins

PhD Program Director

Elizabeth Yzquierdo

Associate Dean for Student Services