Cultivating a sense of belonging through peer mentoring.

• Retention of nurse faculty has created a barrier to increasing enrollment in nursing programs. • A mentoring program demonstrated effectiveness in increasing a sense of belonging. • Mentoring is an effective strategy to create a sense of belonging and increase retention. Cultivating a sense of belonging supports retention and role satisfaction. Peer mentoring is one strategy that may assist in the development of a sense of belonging for new faculty. This study describes a first-year peer mentoring program for new nursing faculty and evaluates its effectiveness in increasing novice faculty's sense of belonging and retention. A quantitative study utilized a modified Departmental Sense of Belonging and Involvement (DeSBI) tool to measure the faculty's sense of belonging after the first year of an intentional peer mentoring program. Response means were between 4.25 and 5.5, indicating that participants agreed with all statements. The highest-rated item was "I feel proud of belonging to the nursing department," with a result of 5.5. Peer mentorship during the first year of a new academic position was beneficial in creating a sense of belonging with a corresponding retention of all eight new faculty members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]