Why would nurses be interested in my PhD findings?

Perhaps I  need to answer this question before moving on. I'm doing this study because I think it is important to promote and extend understanding of the mentor experience. Mentors are such a crucial part of the whole enterprise of educating new nurses. Practice skills cannot be learnt in the classroom. However, the work of mentors seems precariously dependent on goodwill.

There are risks to being a mentor - students can challenge your practice in a slightly misjudged way through their lack of experience; you are vulnerable to gossip around the university; you open up your workplace to students who may slow the pace of work; you feel guilty when you have to tell a student they are failing; you feel responsible for letting someone through who you have doubts about and hope they improve in their next placement.

You give generously of yourself to help students - your time, energy, patience, enthusiasm for nursing. Mentoring is an integral part of being a nurse, and the challenge of passing on what makes a good nurse is never an easy one. Sometimes it is felt or sensed, part of who you are, rather than something that is easily taught. You want students to adopt the values and approaches that you have come to value in your work.

By using hermeneutic phenomenology, I'm trying to interpret all these elements of being a mentor in a way that throws new light on the meaning of mentoring. Perhaps mentors are taken for granted a little too much. Perhaps we can learn a little more about the skill and personal involvement of mentoring that will help to enhance mentor preparation and support. Perhaps there are some answers to the perpetual puzzle of how people can be supported to learn in the workplace and how you should judge and assess workplace learning.