0:02

These areas that I find important to me when it comes to my research interests

0:05

really is about life experiences. So I remember being a young

0:10

nurse and just not feeling like I had that support that

0:13

you need when you're trying to figure it out. And

0:17

I always ask myself, what if everybody had mentors in

0:24

Welcome to A Nurse First. This is Benita Chatmon telling

0:33

I never thought I was going to be a nurse, to be honest. I actually wanted

0:36

to be a pediatrician. I joined the military still

0:40

in high school. I was 16. In fact, I remember my parents had

0:43

to sign for me to join. I went to boot

0:46

camp in between high school and college. And

0:49

I remember being in, I was a freshman in school and

0:53

got the word that I was going to be deployed. It was right after 9-11,

0:56

went to Kuwait. And my journey in Kuwait as a

0:59

19-year-old was gosh, medical school

1:03

is going to be a long time. So, you know,

1:06

thinking about like, what's the next thing? My mom's a nurse. And

1:10

so I said, well, maybe I can do what I love through nursing.

1:14

And I changed my trajectory right there. I decided that

1:17

I was going to be a nurse, but I also love to teach. You

1:21

know, I went to school undergrad, went and worked in the clinical area,

1:24

went right back to school because I knew I wanted to teach, got my master's, eventually

1:28

got my PhD, and I started teaching. And, you know,

1:31

while teaching is the core of what I do, really

1:35

the core of who I am is to lead. I've

1:39

also learned that if you don't create space for

1:43

others, you don't give them the opportunity to grow beyond

1:51

With this in mind, Benita decided to study mentoring in

1:55

her master's program, focusing on its impact on

1:58

new graduates' experiences in retention for her thesis. Then

2:02

during her PhD, she examined mentoring's influence on

2:06

job satisfaction among nurse educators. Despite

2:10

her deep passion for the topic, she didn't anticipate that

2:14

all her research would one day converge into a huge real-world

2:22

I created and developed a peer mentoring program here at LSU Health Sciences

2:26

Center. Now I'm now creating a formal mentorship

2:29

program for our state as far as our nursing association. Before

2:36

the peer mentor program was even a thing, it was an academic success

2:39

task force that was developed and created by my dean

2:43

wanted it to happen and I was leading that task force. The

2:46

task force job or what we're given was we were supposed to

2:49

go investigate all of the various things that students need in

2:53

order to thrive and to be successful. What we

2:56

saw was we were admitting underrepresented minority

3:00

students, but we weren't graduating them. And so we were like, we

3:03

got to be intentional about making sure that every student, no

3:08

matter their background, every student that came into, that was

3:11

admitted into our school of nursing graduated. That

3:14

was our goal. We wanted to make sure that everybody was

3:17

successful. But we also took ownership, like, are

3:21

we creating supportive mechanisms to make sure that they're

3:24

able to graduate? So we came back with

3:28

the report. The report was phenomenal. It had all

3:32

the various things from not only mentorship, but we had immersion programs in

3:35

there. We had tutoring. We had all the various things that students,

3:38

if you could give them all of these tools, they would

3:42

be successful. All those tools, though, require money.

3:46

So what we have in our schools, we have various professions that faculty can

3:50

apply for. And each of the professions have their own goals and

3:53

priorities. Well, this one that I picked, that allowed

3:57

me really to focus on an area that you

4:00

find important and for me that was mentoring. So I wanted to see

4:04

about how do we create a peer mentoring program that

4:08

would help to support students academically. but

4:12

really also to cultivate them into this new setting.

4:15

Because for us, all students that come

4:19

into our program are coming from another institution. So they're not starting

4:22

here. So they're coming from another institution. And for some

4:25

people, it is really a lot. It's really

4:29

difficult for them to transition. Some of them feel alone because

4:33

they may be coming from another institution with nobody they know. And

4:37

so how do we create that support in a way that really

4:40

helps them to continue to matriculate through our program and be successful and

4:44

eventually graduate? So that's what I focused on with that particular

4:48

mentoring program. It was really about creating connections. And

4:53

it also gave me some money to help to support that. So I was like,

4:56

well, let me see if I can take a glimpse of, not the whole plan,

5:00

but just let me just do the mentoring piece. And

5:04

so what we did was basically we have an academic success

5:07

coordinator who helped me to develop the structure of

5:11

that, how we would house that program. We

5:15

also create a space on our website where we'd have information on

5:18

all the peer mentors and that way that mentees

5:22

could see the values of these mentors to see if there

5:25

was somebody more aligned to them. We had scheduled training. We

5:29

had time each semester where we would put out the call. It

5:33

became its own thing. The truth of the matter is, it also

5:37

became very overwhelming because that's just

5:41

a little piece of what I do. The mentoring aspect wasn't my job, per se. we

5:48

needed more support. And so luckily, you know

5:52

how everything just aligns, we got that grant. And

5:56

so that grant allowed us to hire a

5:59

full time program coordinator for the whole grant. But that person

6:03

could also take ownership or a sense of some

6:06

part in the administrative aspect of continuing

6:10

that mentorship program on. But it's also bringing on

6:13

other supportive mechanisms, like I mentioned, which is like coaching and

6:17

I'm tutoring and, you know, we're a health science center. So it

6:21

makes us very much unique because we were

6:25

not really that traditional university where you

6:28

have an academic success center that really houses a lot

6:31

of that supportive mechanism. So it does make us unique in

6:34

a sense that we're a health science center that's still creating supportive mechanisms

6:42

Beyond being an assistant dean, nurse researcher, and

6:46

lead on this mentoring program, you are also Sigma's

6:49

region six coordinator, president of Louisiana State

6:53

Nursing Association, and involved in many other committees

6:57

and task forces. How do you prioritize your time

7:04

My belief is really about serving and serving in my profession and

7:07

leading with a sense of dignity and

7:11

honor. I think for me, what I've found is

7:16

you want to do it all, but the reality is you cannot do

7:19

it all. That's some of the things I teach my mentees because I

7:22

don't want them to, you know, they're always like, I want to be like you,

7:25

Dr. Chapman. I say, no, don't be like me. Be

7:29

like you. Be like you. And one thing I'm going to teach you about

7:32

that is understanding what your yeses need

7:35

to be and what your nos. Does it suit you in this season? And

7:39

how do I know that it suits me in this season? We go back to your goals. What's

7:43

your professional goals? Once you know what you

7:46

want to do, then start thinking about what

7:49

does it take to get there? What do you want to achieve in this season?

7:53

And does this match? Does this get you there? This may be

7:56

great. Yes, it may be something great to do, but it's

7:59

not going to get you to this goal. But this one will. So you're going

8:02

to say no to this. You'll say no and maybe next time.

8:06

And you'll say yes to this because this is going to make me get to the next goal. You

8:11

get to really be intentional about what you select to

8:14

do because you know what the end looks like. If I know what the

8:17

end looks like, then I'm going to create the steps to get there. I

8:22

think for me, that has always been a challenge because I find

8:26

myself always saying yes, and I'm learning that years

8:29

down the road, years. And I have just

8:33

now, in my 14th year, really sitting down learning

8:37

what my yeses are and what my noes, and it's still hard because I'm always thinking

8:40

like, well, I could just add this little thing to my plate, just this little thing.

8:45

Little things become to be a lot of little things. So that's been

8:48

my biggest challenge. It can become overwhelming if

8:52

you don't really sit and focus on what

8:55

you want to achieve because you find yourself saying, yes, it's too many

8:59

things that start occupying too much of your time that you cannot

9:02

focus in on the things that are important and that will allow you to

9:18

Thank you for listening to A Nurse First from Sigma. If

9:22

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9:26

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9:29

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