Background: Professional Nursing is the transference of skills, attitudes, and Competencies from the experienced practitioners to the protégés through effective mentoring and partly through the impartation of relevant knowledge through education and research for safe practice. However, this important mentoring process is fraught with many hindrances in Nigeria, particularly in the South-east zone. Hence, the need to examine these hindrances with the hope of providing evidence-based information for their mitigation.

Objective: The purpose of the study is to align with STROBE (Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology) guidelines to examine the hindrances to "Effective Mentoring in the Nursing Profession as Perceived by Nurses in Tertiary Hospitals in Enugu State, southeast Nigeria" in Nigeria.

Result: Most experienced proficient nurses (83.1%) indicated that the mentees lacked commitment to the mentor's relationship, while the majority of the protégés (85.4%) indicated the mentor's poor interpersonal relationship and poor communication skills as hindrances. Most of these beginner nurses (77.1%) also indicated that the mentors showed a disrespectful attitude toward them. Organizational factors were also rated highly in the form of the absence of formal mentoring in health institutions (89.0%).

Conclusion: The study concluded that there are many hindrances from mentors, protégés, organizations, and inter-professions that militate against effective mentoring in Tertiary hospitals in southeast Nigeria. Recommendations for establishing formal mentoring structures and making mentoring intentional were made for better clinical practice and improved quality of nursing care.