Starting any new career can be daunting. While you might have spent years training on paper, being thrown into a role feels nothing like the textbooks, as you find yourself second-guessing decisions at 2am, worrying you’ve missed something important. This is especially common in nursing, often described as ‘transition shock’. It’s that very real gap between being a student and then starting a job, and it can lead many grads to asking: Am I cut out for this? This is where mentorship matters. In a workforce under pressure, strong mentoring can be the difference between people burning out and people staying.

Having someone in your corner can make it easier to ask the questions you’re scared to ask, talk through a tricky situation, or debrief after a shift that’s left you feeling rattled. Transition shock doesn’t usually hit all of a sudden. Instead, it builds slowly through silent stress as the reality of clinical work sets in. One minute you’re trying to manage medication rounds, then you’re answering a call bell, chasing pathology and following up procedures.

You’re learning in real time, with real people, and real consequences. It’s a huge learning curve, but that’s just it – it’s all about learning. When graduates don’t feel safe to ask questions, they hesitate and overthink. They might delay escalating something because they’re unsure if they’re overreacting. Or they might do the opposite and panic-escalate because they don’t yet have the confidence to trust their judgement. Research suggests that between 18% and 30% of new graduate nurses leave their current position or the profession altogether in their first year, and between 37% and 57% leave in their second year of practice. Those are big numbers.

Mentorship helps to break that cycle early. It gives new graduate nurses something they often don’t realise they’re missing until they have it – a steady point of support in the middle of a very steep learning curve.

New grads who feel supported tend to ask questions earlier, learn systems faster, and become safe and independent sooner. That means they can contribute with more confidence, which reduces pressure on the team around them. Mentorship also helps bridge the gap between theory and practice:

• Prioritising when everything feels urgent.
• Communicating clearly with doctors, senior staff and families.
• Staying calm when a patient deteriorates.
• Recovering emotionally after a hard shift.

These are the moments that can make or break the first year, and they’re exactly where a good mentor can make the biggest difference. Nurses who feel supported in their first 12 months are
significantly less likely to leave the profession within the first five years.

When mentorship is working well, you can feel the difference across the whole team. When new grads are thrown into that environment without enough support, it adds pressure to everyone around them. Senior clinicians often end up doing two jobs at once. They’re trying to manage their own patient load, stay on top of documentation, coordinate care, and respond to the ward, while also keeping a watchful eye on a new nurse who is still finding their feet. Support often becomes reactive rather than planned.

A senior nurse might be interrupted multiple times mid-task to answer questions or troubleshoot something urgent. They might have to drop what they’re doing to double-check a medication, help with an escalation, or guide a difficult conversation with a family. Without structure, these moments can disrupt workflow and contribute to burnout. Mentorship helps prevent that by creating a more intentional system. Instead of relying on whoever is available in the moment, support becomes more consistent and more predictable.

This mentorship isn’t just about the graduate. Many experienced nurses say that mentoring is one of the few things that genuinely reconnects them with why they chose the profession in the first place. When the work has been intense for a long time, it’s easy to slip into survival mode. Supporting someone else to grow can bring back a sense of purpose, pride and perspective.

It also builds real leadership skills while helping with clinical thinking. When you’re explaining the “why” behind a decision, you naturally reflect on your own practice. You slow down, explain your reasoning, and sometimes notice patterns you hadn’t before. And for many mentors, it becomes part of career progression. Whether that plan is to step into a more senior clinical role, move to education, or simply strengthen leadership skills, mentorship is a practical way to develop those skills in the real world.

Making mentorship work in a busy clinical setting doesn’t require a perfect roster or an unrealistic workload. It requires structure, consistency and a mindset shift – from mentorship as “something extra” to part of sustainable practice. The most effective mentorship programs sit inside a workplace culture where questions are welcomed, and learning is normalised. New grads should be encouraged to speak up early and reflect on what they’re learning.

Most importantly, mentorship protects what nursing relies on: people. Skilled, capable clinicians who want to do a good job, but need the right support to grow into their role without burning out. In a system that can’t afford to lose good staff, mentorship is one of the clearest investments a workplace can make.

To learn more about mentoring or for further detail on the Nurse & Midwife Support Mentorship Program visit Eastern Health.