Telementoring in Community Nursing: A shift from dyadic to communal models of learning and professional development

This article reports on a six-month telementoring initiative in a Canadian community nursing organization. The way in which Internet technologies may support and augment face-to-face mentorship of health care professionals is a relatively unexplored area of research and was the focus of this project. Participants ( N =22) were all employees of Saint Elizabeth Health Care (SEHC), a community nursing agency servicing 150,000 clients in urban and rural Ontario, Canada. Nurse mentees ( n =11) and nurse-mentors ( n =11) engaged in collaborative discourse in webKnowledge Forum, a second-generation computer-supported intentional learning environment (CSILE). Discussions among all participants were directed at collaborative learning and professional development. Results indicate that mentees contributed and read more notes than mentors and were more likely to engage in threaded discourse with peers. Readership patterns were similar for both groups. Fifty-eight per cent of all nurses reported improved asynchronous communication and problem-solving skills as a result of online collaboration. Seventy-five per cent of all respondents reported a positive professional development experience and 50% of all respondents reported improved clinical practice ability as outcomes of the telementorship program. All reported high satisfaction with the technology. It is concluded that this project facilitated a shift from dyadic mentor-mentee (preceptor-intern) training to communal opportunistic learning and professional development.