Background: Evidence indicates that formal mentoring programs improve staff retention rates, job satisfaction and commitment to professional development in many professions. There has been limited evidence on the impact of formal mentoring on the professional development of diabetes educators, in particular educators at various stages of their careers.

In response to research that suggests professional development or becoming a professional does not stop with the attainment of a tertiary qualification the Australian Diabetes Educators Association (ADEA) established a formal mentoring program in 2008. The aims of the mentoring program were to support members who were striving to achieve recognition as ADEA Credentialled Diabetes Educator (CDE), to support CDEs who were transitioning to a new role in diabetes education and to offer a mechanism for professional development of leadership skills for existing CDEs.

Aim: To examine whether the introduction of the formal mentoring program for diabetes educators contributed to their ongoing professional development, achievement and satisfaction of goals.

Methods: In 2012 an audit was undertaken of all survey questionnaires submitted to the ADEA from mentor and mentee participants who registered that they had completed the ADEA formal mentoring program. A Likert-scale was used to measure the attitudes, satisfaction and achievement of goals of mentorship program participants.

Results: 343 mentors and 320 mentees registered as having completed the ADEA formal mentoring program during the period of 2008 to May 2012. Table 1 illustrates the feedback from the mentees’ perspective of the ADEA formal mentoring program.

Table 1

Conclusion: The findings from this research may contribute to an understanding of whether the introduction of formal mentoring programs can be extrapolated to include the wider nursing community in terms of their personal and professional development. Further, the findings provide a snapshot of issues requiring further investigation.