The shortage of nurses in the United States (U.S.) has been attributed to qualified applicants being turned away from nursing programs that lack sufficient number of faculty (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2024). Among all the strategies recommended to address the faculty shortage, mentoring is identified as the first step towards faculty retention when nurse clinicians transition into educator roles (Fernández-Lorente et al., 2025). Although mentoring is a mutual relationship at its core, this relationship is often studied from the vantage point of the mentee (Swanson et al., 2017). It is important to note that perceptions of mentors are as insightful as those of mentees to provide answers on how to strengthen existing faculty mentoring programs and start new ones (Cullen et al., 2017).

Tenure-track faculty are considered as cornerstone of colleges and universities in the U.S. Making tenure signifies academic freedom and enables faculty to pursue original research free from institutional pressure or financial consequences (American Association of University Professors, 2025). The pursuit of originality and innovation is central to advancing disciplinary knowledge. Therefore, supporting nursing faculty to obtain tenure is crucial to the advancement of individual faculty, the academic institution, and the nursing profession as a whole (Ashcraft et al., 2021). Research is needed to shed light on the resources, challenges, and benefits of serving as a mentor while supporting faculty in their pursuit of tenure. The current study explored mentors' experiences of supporting tenure-track faculty in nursing academia.