One of the first things I did in order to implement my STAR competency, following buy-in from the B.S.N. faculty, was to present a power point presentation to the freshman class. The power point explained the purpose of the mentor program, some details regarding each of the classes they will be taking over the course of the program, contact information for myself and our instructors, and so on. Here is a copy of that presentation in its entirety.

A few weeks after the initial presentation to the freshman cohort, I decided to follow up with them and wrote them a brief letter to that was post to them through Canvas. Because I did not have their e-mail addresses, this letter was forwarded to them by Dr. Hoffer. The major purpose of this letter to them was to reinforce the concept of my availability and willingness to act as a partner and advocate for the benefit of their educations. Following this letter, I started to receive some emails with questions with which I was able to help these students. Here is a copy of that letter.

Here are some of the correspondences that I made with the students that reached out for me. I have hidden their personal information and names to maintain their privacy. When responding to the student communiques, I tried to answer them appropriately without giving them so much information as to detract from their critical thinking skills. As a mentor, I see handing over an answer in its entirety to be possibly just as damaging to a student as not helping at all.

As we approached mid-semester, I sent the students in the freshman class another e-mail to remind them that I was going to be present the days of their final presentations for the Socialization class. This is to give them another opportunity to ask me questions directly and for me to assess how they feel like they are progressing in their coursework. Furthermore, it was my idea at this time to also provide a little bit of guidance in regards to their Nursing Theory and Philosophy course, which is part B of the semester. On the same day I posted the e-mail to the freshman cohort, I also posted an email to the junior cohort. The notification to the junior class was to notify of my intent to also see them in order to recruit one of them to continue the Mentor program in Spring of 2016. Here are both of those e-mails.

Following the e-mails I sent to the Freshman class, I once again followed up with them in person between two days of them being in class. Once again, I advised them of what was to come and reminded them of my availability. During the same week, I met with the Junior Class as well to discuss my project with them and to determine who would be taking over the project once I have graduated. I had several volunteers who wanted to take over for me but, because this is an individual project, we chose the candidate by having all volunteers place their names and contact numbers into a box and had one of the instructors draw one. I was glad to have Rachel Thompson being the person who wanted to take over as the Peer Mentor for our next cohort of BSN nurses as I felt she has a positive, nurturing attitude and appears to be competent enough to adequately provide direction as needed. Shortly after Rachel was chosen, we had a brief meeting regarding how the hand-off process would occur and discussed how she might individualize the project to make it her own. We thought it might be a good idea for Rachel to extend the Peer Mentor program towards the ADN senior class in order to give them an idea of what to expect should they decide to continue on at CF.

     Finally, close to the end of the semester, I developed a survey through SurveyMonkey.com that helped me determine how people perceived the program overall and gave people an opportunity to provide suggestions for improvement. I was slightly disappointed at the response to the survey. I created it on 10/28/2015 and left it open for 14 days. Upon the creation of the survey, I also wrote another letter to the freshman class that was forwarded to them by Dr. Hoffer. The letter contained a direct link to the survey and asked the students to fill it out by or before 11/12/2015. I had two respondents to the survey, one of whom denied having knowledge of the program. In light of this, the evidence showing the effectiveness of the mentor program has to be stated as being inconclusive as of yet when I examine the quantitative data. However, if I include the written expressions of gratitude given by some students via e-mail then I can say that for those students the program appeared to be beneficial. Below I have provided a link to the student survey I created within the letter I wrote to the students of the Fall 2015 Freshman B.S.N. cohort.

     On 11/10/2015, I sent Rachel Thompson access to the email address for the program along with the powerpoints I developed for the purpose of in class presentations. I plan on remaining accessible to Rachel until 12/31/2015 so she has support available. Another brief discussion has been held with Rachel regarding the plan of action to approach the Senior A.D.N. students. She stated that she will speak with Dr. Barbara Lange, Dean of Health Sciences, in order to obtain approval for A.D.N. outreach. This will be a necessary step to facilitate her addition to the program. Furthermore, Rachel stated knowing that she needed to be aware of the dates for freshman orientation for the Spring 2016 semester so she may speak with them. While I have provided some strategic advice and guidance towards a successful outcome for Rachel's STAR Competency, I must now entrust my vision to her in the hopes that she will be a great mentor to a new cohort of students and that she will device new strategies for providing outreach.