Introduction: Mentoring in nursing research and academia

In this section of the book, the focus is on the importance of mentoring of nurses working in the fields of research and academia. As we all know, nursing research is imperative to the foundation of nursing both as a profession and as a scientific discipline and is integral to the development of new knowledge impacting patient, professional, and healthcare outcomes. In the past decade, nursing research has gone through huge developments. Since the days of Florence Nightingale in the nineteenth century, it was not until late part of last century that nursing research began the advancement that has been seen in the past decades. The growth of nursing research is mainly due to factors like: the increasing number of master's and doctorally prepared nurses, who work in research, education, and clinical practice and who have developed competencies to conduct research and teach students at all levels. This has also been due to more funding made available for nursing research, as well establishment of vehicles for the implementation and dissemination of research findings.