Peer mentorship program helps nursing students navigate their early college years

Learning from those who have been through similar experiences can be one of the most effective ways to handle a challenge. For students of Liberty University’s School of Nursing (LUSON), a peer mentorship program through the Liberty University Nursing Student Association (LUNSA) gives younger students a source of encouragement as they face the highs and lows of pursuing a degree in the nursing field.

The PROMISE (Peers Reaching Out to Motivate, Inspire, Strengthen, and Empower) Project has existed since 2019, connecting LUSON upperclassmen with freshmen and sophomores. Those who volunteer as mentors receive credit for their Christian/Community Service (CSER) hours.

LUNSA promotes participation in community affairs, collaborative relationships, and career opportunities for all nursing students. Through the pillars of philanthropy, service, and leadership, members develop interpersonal and interprofessional skills. LUNSA is a chapter of the Virginia Nursing Student Association and a member of the National Nursing Student Association.

The peer program is more than just connecting students to “make friends,” faculty advisor and nursing professor Dr. Dana Woody said, and is designed to focus on the well-being of students academically, emotionally, and spiritually. Students can join LUNSA and the PROMISE Project at the beginning of each semester. Mentors receive training, have access to resources on Canvas, and make monthly reports about how their underclassmen are doing throughout the semester.

“We really want our students to make it to senior year and to graduation, so we want them to feel supported,” Woody said. “We support things like stress management, the appreciation for grit, all the dimensions of wellness. Ultimately, we’re looking at helping maintain everything within the mind, body, and spirit of our students for their success.”

Most of the mentorship pairs are between a freshman and junior or a sophomore and senior, allowing the upperclassmen to speak from at least two years of experience.

PROMISE director Mariana Bindenelli, a senior, remembers the challenges she faced when she started at Liberty.

“I remember being a freshman and being terrified, not having the support I needed, and being so stressed about getting into the program,” Bindenelli said. “I am now a senior, and it is so special to me to be able to reflect back. I get to (speak to) the people who are behind me and say, ‘I was you before, and I have made it through.’ What a gift it is from the Lord that we get to stand here and further pour into people in the way that either we did get poured into or we wish we were poured into.”

Director-elect Alaina Johnson, a junior, said her mentor last year helped answer many questions, both small and big, about studying nursing. Johnson said she still speaks to her former mentor, now simply a friend, every day and formed multiple other friendships through their connection.

“(LUSON) can be intimidating, because freshman year you’re new to Liberty, and then your sophomore year you’re new to the program, and so having someone who can answer all those little questions about your uncertainties and your anxieties is so important,” Johnson said. “I also think that even though the mentees are gaining this from their mentors, the mentors also have a chance to learn and become a great leader and give back to a community that they’ve been a part of.”

“It can start as a mentorship and your CSER, but we always encourage them that, at the end of the day, the goal is to leave this semester with a new friend,” Bindenelli added.

For some mentors, Bindenelli explained, being a part of PROMISE is an invaluable reminder of why they’re at LUSON and pursuing careers in nursing to begin with.

“They’ve explained that they got to a point where they forgot why they had come here in the first place; they were questioning why they were in nursing and feeling like they weren’t doing as much as they could be doing,” she said. “But in having a mentorship program, they were able to remember the struggles that they went through and not forget their ‘Why.’ When you have to practice your ‘Why’ (consistently), it stays with you.”

The profession of nursing in the United States, Woody explained, is currently in “crisis mode,” with almost 35 percent of new nurses leaving the field within two years of practice. She hopes PROMISE and programs like it can change this, especially with LUSON’s goal of sending highly skilled Christian nurses out into the world.

“From a nursing faculty perspective, our job here is to Train Champions for Christ, and we want our Christian nurses on the front lines,” she said. “This mentorship project really supports an opportunity to invest in them so that they can navigate the throes of a very complicated field to go into. We are equipping them with this grit, if you will, to get out there and change that statistic.”

Today, LUNSA has nearly 300 members, almost half of whom (118) are either PROMISE mentors or mentees. Woody has been contacted by the Virginia Nursing Association about the PROMISE mentorship model and the possibility of expanding to allow seniors at LUSON to be paired with nursing professionals in the Commonwealth.

“God showed up and he showed off, and now we have … an amazing mentorship project that is led by two of the finest here at the School of Nursing, and it’s done some great things,” Woody said. “(God) orchestrated that for us all and we’re forever grateful, and we can’t wait to see where it takes us in the future.”