A phenomenological study of mentoring in the lives of distinguished occupational therapists

This study used a phenomenological approach to examine what mentoring meant to accomplished occupational therapists. Nine female therapists from the mid-Atlantic region of the United States participated in this study. Participants are recipients of state and national professional awards for their accomplishments in clinical practice. Mean age was 54 years; mean years in practice was 29. Two in-depth interviews were conducted with each participant. Interview narrative was analyzed using coding techniques from grounded theory research methodology.; All participants had mentors and protégés throughout their careers though mentoring was understood based primarily on their protege experiences. Most participants had two or more important mentors, and mentors were often other occupational therapists. As proteges, all mentoring relationships for these participants were informal and closely connected with their careers.; Three categories of meaning emerged from the data: relationship, movement, and responsibility. Relationship indicated that mentoring emerged or was realized over time; affinity between protégé and mentor is fundamental to mentoring; and there is a long-term hierarchical quality to mentoring with mentors viewed as being more advanced than protégés. Movement expressed the positive impact of mentoring with both career and personal changes associated with having been mentored. Responsibility describes motivation and expectations concerning mentoring as individuals and as members of a profession.; Findings of this study both supported and contrasted with existing mentoring literature. Similarities include the realization of positive career and personal changes associated with mentoring. In addition, attraction between protégé and mentor included subjectively understood affinity, supporting the idea that mentoring cannot be forced or assigned. Consistent with mentoring research in the occupational therapy profession, mentors were often other occupational therapists, and the hierarchical nature of the relationship typically continued throughout the relationship. Relationships of these participants supported the importance of learning to the mentoring relationship, a finding consistent with the adult education mentoring literature.; In contrast to the classic mentor-protégé relationship depicted in much of the adult education and occupational therapy mentoring literature, participants in this study had mentoring relationships that were less intense and longer lasting than classic mentoring suggests. In addition, the phase and stage models of mentoring are a poor fit for the experiences of these participants, particularly regarding hierarchy and temporal aspects of the relationship. While mentoring was embedded within the careers of these highly successful participants, overt career advances and instrumental gains from mentoring were less a motivating factor for engagement in mentoring than was individual sense of responsibility. Professional identity and context was an important consideration in understanding mentoring for these participants and should be included in future mentoring research.