The mentoring program was developed by incorporating both structured and unstructured components.  The process for becoming a mentor or being assigned a mentor followed a structured process, but mentoring activities within each mentor match was unstructured due to the wide variety of possible mentoring arrangements.  (A few examples of the variety include: new nurse assimilation, a nurse looking to gain knowledge regarding research or publishing, or perhaps a nurse seeking to enter a managerial track.)

The objectives of each mentoring match needed to be established by the individuals not by the program (again due to the potential wide range of mentoring needs), and this was accomplished through Mentoring Statement of Understanding.  This document was developed with the thought that this was meant to be "explorative", not "prescriptive".  It was developed with careful attention to the fact that this document should start a conversation but it would not tell either party "what to do".  This also models the fundamental belief that a true mentoring relationship is not centered around dictates, rather exploration and that a mutual consensus must be established between both parties when developing objectives and boundaries of the relationship.

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