DEVELOPING A STUDENT NURSE ANESTHETIST MENTORSHIP PROGRAM

Abstract

Student registered nurse anesthetists (SRNAs) experience significant anxiety and stress during their three years of doctoral education. As a result, SRNAs may display burnout and fatigue, resulting in program attrition, poor mental health and well-being, and suicidal ideation (Mesisca & Mainwaring, 2021). A review of the literature suggests that medical students and other allied health professionals receiving mentorship have decreased stress, increased resilience, and may experience less distressing periods of transition between didactic and clinical demands (Akinla et al., 2018; Etzel et al., 2018; Nakhostin-Ansari et al., 2021). Although the benefits of mentorship have been studied in the medical school student and physician resident population, a gap exists in research that establishes the benefits of implementing evidence-based mentorship programs for SRNAs. This paper investigates evidence on peer mentorship in health professions and makes evidence-based recommendations for the creation of a tailored mentorship program to meet the needs of Kaiser Permanente School of Anesthesia (KPSA) students. This program does not currently have a formalized student mentorship program. Baseline mentorship satisfaction and perceived stress of current KPSA students were collected via an electronic survey using established research tools. Additionally, a needs assessment was conducted to establish themes among students’ mentorship wants and needs. Recommendations for an evidence-based mentorship program have been devised for future implementation at KPSA to meet the needs of students, as revealed by their responses. Significant barriers to successful mentorship program implementation and future evaluation metrics of the mentorship program post-implementation are also discussed.