382 ■ III: ROLE FUNCTIONS OF DOCTORAL ADVANCED NURSING PRACTICE
The following two cases present brief illustrations of two distinct mentoring styles,
with distinctly different outcomes, depending largely upon the nature of the relation-
ship between mentor and mentee:
■ CASE STUDY I: David: A DNP Student
David was in his last year of doctoral study, and was about to register for his
culminating DNP course, which required him, as part of an interdisciplinary
team in a mental health setting, to design and implement an evidence- based
quality improvement program. He was having difficulty deciding on an ap-
proach to assessing the needs of the topic or population to study. His facul-
ty advisor mentioned his difficulty to another faculty who was involved in
a countywide assessment of mental health needs in uninsured patients and
their families. She approached David and asked him if he would like to join
her at the planning meetings and decide if he would like to participate in
the project. He agreed and accompanied her to the next planning meeting,
where she introduced him to several stakeholders, and directed him to sit at
the table with her. During the planning discussions at the table, she would
seek his opinions, and explained some constructs and history to him when
needed. She asked him if he would like to develop a questionnaire and inter-
view a group of stakeholders, and he agreed. They met in her office several
times during the first few months thereafter, during which she guided him in
coding, categorizing, and interpreting responses. David completed his cap-
stone paper, which was used by the mental health center as evidence needed
to fund a new program at the center. His mentor then invited him to present
his study at a regional research conference. During his presentation, David
pointed to his mentor and thanked her for her help. She asked him if he want-
ed to rewrite the paper for submission to a nursing journal, and he willingly
agreed. He wrote the paper with her assistance, it was submitted to a nursing
journal, was accepted, and published a year later. She incorporated the study
into the literature review for a proposal she wrote a year later, which was
approved and funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration
division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.■ CASE STUDY II: Patricia: A PhD and New
Faculty MemberPatricia returned to graduate school after 20 years of practice in acute care
hospitals as a critical- care clinical nurse specialist. She had just graduated
with a PhD degree, and had accepted a position as an assistant professor at
a small nursing school. This would be the first time she would assume the
role of a nurse educator, although she had precepted many nursing students
at work. She received a short orientation to her role, and was told that the
chair of the course that she was assigned to would be her mentor. She had
many questions and concerns about her role and about how to identify and(continued)