Cleveland Clinic Nursing Joins College Now Mentoring Program

Furthering its commitment to support, guide and mentor the next generation of nurses, Cleveland Clinic’s Stanley Shalom Zielony Institute for Nursing Excellence recently joined the College Now Mentoring Program of Greater Cleveland.

College Now pairs Cleveland-area college students who are College Now scholarship recipients with college graduate-level professionals in the Cleveland area. Through a 4-year commitment, professionals mentor students one-on-one throughout their college careers, guiding them, helping them navigate obstacles and more.

Simple, easy, successful

The structure of the program is simple and easy to fit into the busy schedules of both working professionals and college students. Throughout their time together, pairs are asked to exchange two messages a month through an online platform. They also meet in person three times a year, or more if desired. However, much of the mentor/mentee interaction is web-based.

Currently, there are approximately 1,100 mentor/mentee pairs in the program. And, College Now reports that in the past three years, 72 percent of students in the pilot class graduated on time with their degrees, compared to only 42 percent of their peers nationally.

As noted in a February 2019 article in Community Leader, College Now attributes much of the program’s success to the careful matching of mentor to mentee.

Recognizing the program’s growing need for mentors in the healthcare profession, the Nursing Institute’s leadership team made the decision to join the program in January 2019. Since announcing the initiative internally in March, Cleveland Clinic nursing caregivers have been registering to become College Now mentors.

Ongoing commitment to preparing future nurses

The Nursing Institute’s commitment to the College Now Mentoring Program is one more step in the organization’s drive to help shape and prepare future generation nurses.

For nearly 15 years, the award-winning Dean’s Roundtable, a partnership program with local schools of nursing, has worked to ensure higher nursing education aligns with the skills needed for real-world practice.

Additionally, the one-of-a-kind health system-based New Graduate Nurse Residency offers a roadmap for aiding new nurses in the transition from academia to professional practice. The residency is designed to improve practice readiness of new nurses and provide enhanced training, skills and knowledge for delivering high-quality, safe patient care. Similarly, the Nursing Institute also offers a perioperative nurse residency for new operating room nurses.

Another highly successful mentoring initiative is the Nurse Associate Extern program. It is tailored to nursing students entering their senior year in an accredited BSN program. Student nurses spend 10 weeks working with a mentor as a PRN nurse associate extern. The experience includes classroom and inpatient/outpatient observation opportunities.

Furthermore, one of Cleveland Clinic Nursing’s most recent mentoring programs targets high school students who are interested in the nursing profession. Known as ASPIRE Nurse Scholars, the program seeks to develop underrepresented high school juniors and seniors for careers in professional nursing. It supports participants in building a foundation of necessary skills as juniors, continuing as mentors when they are seniors, transitioning to Cleveland Clinic caregivers upon graduation from high school and, eventually, achieving their registered nursing degree.

The 2019 ASPIRE Nurse Scholars graduation ceremony recognized 19 graduating scholars who are joining Cleveland Clinic as patient care nursing assistants and starting at Cuyahoga Community College this fall in pursuit of their registered nursing degrees.

For more information on Cleveland Clinic Nursing Institute programs and opportunities designed for nursing students and new nurses, contact our Office of Nursing Education and Professional Development.