Lighting the fire with mentoring relationships

Mentoring provides fuel to advance nursing science and ensure a growing cadre of career nurse scientists. With the demand for well-prepared nursing faculty in the area of academic geriatrics, mentoring by expert faculty provides an optimal opportunity for retention and growth of junior faculty. Reflecting on 2 years of a mentoring relationship in the Hartford Building Academic Geriatric Nursing Capacity (BAGNC) postdoctoral scholar program, the BAGNC Claire M. Fagin Fellowship, the authors describe the desired attributes of mentoring relationships that were beneficial to the career of the mentored junior faculty member and were satisfying to the mentors. From the perspective of mentors and mentee, the authors describe the stages of a mentoring relationship and the ingredients of this transforming experience, as well as barriers, challenges, rewards, and lessons learned.