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Background: Mentoring in nursing is recognized as a strategy to improve the retention and workplace well-being of registered nurses. However, while nurse mentors play a crucial role in the mentoring process, their experiences and development are underexplored in research. Global concerns regarding registered nurses’ retention and deteriorating working environments, highlighted by organizations such as the World Health Organization, underscore the need for sustainable strategies that foster supportive work cultures. Within the Swedish-Norwegian action research project Becoming a Professional Nurse (BePROF), a mentorship intervention was developed and tested in the northern regions of both countries. This thesis, which exists within the BePROF framework, explores mentoring from the perspectives of nurse mentors.

Aim: The aim of this thesis was to explore mentoring within the nursing profession by examining registered nurses’ job satisfaction, professional competence, and self-efficacy at different work experience levels, and by exploring nurse mentors’ experiences, development, and the prerequisites for mentoring in the context of a mentoring intervention.

Methods: This thesis applied quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods to explore complementary approaches to knowledge creation. The studies contributed to the overarching action research project’s phases problem identification and evaluation. Study I was a multicenter cross-sectional survey of 1137 registered nurses, comparing self-rated job satisfaction, professional competence, and self-efficacy across work experience groups. Data were analyzed with descriptive and comparative statistics. Study II was a qualitative interview study with 21 registered nurses describing their experiences of being a mentor, analyzed with qualitative content analysis. Study III used a mixed-methods design to explore nurse mentors’ clinical teaching behavior, self-efficacy, and role development. Data were collected from 52 participants before the intervention, 30 at post-test I, and 17 at post-test II, along with focus group interviews involving 19 nurse mentors post-intervention. Quantitative data were analyzed with descriptive and comparative statistics, and qualitative data with qualitative content analysis; results were triangulated to identify convergence and divergence. Study IV was a qualitative study based on focus group interviews with 19 nurse mentors, exploring their perspectives on the prerequisites for mentoring, analyzed with qualitative content analysis.

Results: Nurse mentors demonstrated strong motivation and ability to take on mentoring roles. However, the results from both the pre- and post-intervention phases underscored a clear need for enhanced organizational support for nurse mentors. Results in Study I showed that job satisfaction was lowest among registered nurses with medium-term work experience, compared to newly qualified nurses and registered nurses with long-term work experience. Professional competence and self-efficacy were highest among registered nurses with long-term work experience. In Study II, the results further showed that being a nurse mentor meant fostering safety within complex working environments. Study III showed that during the intervention, the nurse mentors experienced both personal and professional growth, particularly in terms of relationship-building, mentoring skills, and role clarity. Consistently high ratings were reported regarding clinical teaching behavior and self-efficacy, with a post-intervention increase in clinical teaching behavior scores. The results in Study IV further emphasized that nurse mentors require organizational structure and the support of leaders in order to facilitate the mentoring process.

Conclusions: Being and becoming a nurse mentor is a relational, reflective, and developmental process that fosters nurse mentors’ professional identities, and contributes to a positive workplace culture. When it is embedded into daily clinical practice, nurse mentors can support the transition of newly qualified nurses into the profession, thereby enhance retention, and promote lifelong learning. It can strengthen leadership, communication, and reflection skills, while also reinforce a sense of purpose and belonging in nurse mentors. For mentoring to be both sustainable and impactful, it must be supported by unit leaders through structured routines and continuous guidance. Future studies should explore the long-term sustainability and impact of mentoring in nursing longitudinally. Key areas for future research include how mentoring influences professional development over time; the role of organizational culture and leadership in successful mentoring implementation; assessing the economic impact of such implementations; and the potential of interprofessional mentoring to support collaborative practice across disciplines.