Mentoring is one of the major ways of promoting development of human capacity in nursing profession because it supports academic success and clinical competence in nursing education, but evidence on its organisation, knowledge and utilisation among undergraduate student nurses is limited. This study assessed knowledge and utilisation of mentorship among student nurses in Rivers State University, Port Harcourt. Quantitative cross-sectional descriptive survey was used on a target population of 626 student nurses in Years 2 to 5. A sample of 268 was determined with Taro Yamane’s formula and 10% attrition. Of the 268 questionnaires distributed, 255 were retrieved and analysed (95.1% response rate). Multi-stage sampling was used. Data were collected with a self-structured questionnaire (reliability coefficient 0.82). Data was analysed with SPSS using frequencies, percentages, means, standard deviations, chi-square and Pearson correlation at the 0.05 significance level. Respondents were predominantly female (85.5%) and aged 18–25 years (91.8%). Knowledge of mentorship was high (mean = 7.64 ± 0.92). Only 61 (23.9%) had an assigned mentor, while 194 (76.1%) did not, also 67.1% had never met a mentor. Utilization of mentorship was low, (mean = 2.41+¬ 0.83). Study concluded that student nurses have high mentorship knowledge but this was not translated to utilisation. Structured mentor–mentee programme with trained mentors, clear objectives, regular meetings and monitoring is recommended.