The knowledge and skills of pre-registration masters’ and diploma qualified nurses: A preceptor perspective

Changing preceptorship to achieve better quality training and less attrition in newly qualified nurses

The preceptorship period is of great importance in the career of a nurse, as he or she moves from being a student to a competent, accountable professional. Problems with the current preceptorship system for preceptors include not receiving adequate training—particularly in providing constructive feedback to preceptees. In addition, when a small number of nurses are repeatedly assigned preceptees to mentor, this can lead to burnout. Preceptees can feel overwhelmed by their first months as a newly qualified nurse (NQN) and can feel unsupported if a preceptor's teaching style or personality is unsuited to them. This can lead to attrition in the nursing workforce, a current problem. This article suggests a new way of organising preceptorship, by allowing preceptors to opt in to the scheme, providing a pool of energised and enthusiastic preceptors. In turn, NQNs could initially work with the pool of nurses before being given the choice of which preceptor to work with individually.

Competence development as perceived by degree and non-degree graduates in Japan: a longitudinal study

BACKGROUND

A degree programme is believed to prepare graduates with a higher level of competence than their diploma counterparts. However, there have been inconsistent findings reported as to whether or not degree-graduates outperformed those who take diplomas.

OBJECTIVES

This study aimed to identify graduates' perceptions of competence development in their first year of employment, and to compare the competence levels of graduates with different educational backgrounds.

DESIGN

This study adopted a longitudinal design.

SETTINGS

This study has been performed in five hospitals in Japan.

PARTICIPANTS

122 Japanese graduates participated in this study.

METHODS

The self-assessed competence of the graduates was collected in the 3rd, 6th, 9th, and 12th months of their employment using a survey method. The data were analysed using a linear mixed model.

RESULTS

The results suggested that the graduates perceived their competence to be rapidly growing during the first half of the graduate year, and slowly later. The results also indicated that the graduates' perception of their competence showed a significant variation. The most striking finding of the study was that, on average, the non-degree graduates rated their competence higher than their degree counterparts.

CONCLUSIONS

The current university orientation on emphasising intellectual and theoretical components of education, with less focus on practical components might have led to the development of lower competence among the BN graduates. A fine balance between theoretical and practical components needs to be established in a university curriculum.