Understanding nurse preceptors' experiences in a primary health care setting: A descriptive qualitative study

Nursing Students' and Nurse Preceptors' Perspectives of an Ambulatory Dedicated Education Unit in Primary Care and General Internal Medicine

BACKGROUND

The sustainability of prelicensure nursing clinical learning models within ambulatory care is dependent on strong partnership and the availability of ambulatory nurse preceptors. Evaluation of preceptor and student satisfaction with ambulatory clinical experiences is necessary to identify program strengths and opportunities.

METHOD

Nursing students' and nurse preceptors' perceptions of an ambulatory dedicated education unit (DEU) in primary care and general internal medicine practices were measured from 2021 to 2023.

RESULTS

Students' survey responses indicated a high level of agreement for 20 (90.9%) of 22 items in 2021, 35 (100%) of 35 items in 2022, and 32 (91.4%) of 35 items in 2023. Preceptor responses demonstrated favorable agreement with all of the work-life satisfaction across the 3 years of the survey, with the exception of one question on the 2021 survey.

CONCLUSION

Nursing students and staff nurse preceptors found the ambulatory DEU teaching and learning experience to be positive and satisfying. [J Nurs Educ. 2024;63(3):171-177.].

The perspectives of pharmacy student preceptors on a service-learning program in primary health care: A qualitative study

Background

There are a few studies about preceptorship in primary health care settings, but they didn't assess all possible contributions of this experience, such as preceptor behavioral changes and impact on health services.

Objective

This study aimed to analyze the perspective of pharmacy student preceptors on a service-learning program carried out in a primary health care setting.

Methods

This was a qualitative descriptive study, with semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis. The themes were defined deductively, according to levels of Kirkpatrick's theory about the impact of educational activities.

Results

The preceptors showed positive and negative reactions to the structure of the service-learning program, developed their knowledge, changed behaviors such as collaborative interprofessional practice, and reported improvements in the health units.

Conclusions

From the perspective of pharmacy student preceptor preceptors, the service-learning program had an impact on all levels expected for an educational activity according to Kirkpatrick's theory: reaction, learning, behavior, and results. These findings may inform the design of service-learning programs.

Nurses' perceptions of preceptorship of undergraduate students in clinical context

BACKGROUND

Nurses' perceptions of preceptorships for undergraduate nursing students are crucial for designing effective and tailor-made strategies to improve nurses' involvement, motivation, commitment, and satisfaction in preceptorships.

OBJECTIVES

The aim of this study was to determine nurses' perceptions of preceptorships for nursing students in two hospitals located in northern Spain.

SETTINGS

This study was conducted in two highly specialized, medium-large, university tertiary care hospitals, including one public and one private hospital, located in northern Spain.

PARTICIPANTS

The participants of this study were clinical nurses in private and public health centers who had been preceptors for at least one year.

METHODS

A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out between October 2021 and April 2022, with a total sample of 307. The validated "Involvement, Motivation, Satisfaction, Obstacles and Commitment" (IMSOC) questionnaire was used. Descriptive statistics and bivariate analysis were carried out. The variables included sex, age, educational level, preceptorship training, professional experience, work sector, work setting, and type of contract.

RESULTS

The mean global questionnaire score was 115.25 ± 33.86 (95 % CI: 111.62-123), with the highest score obtained for the "Involvement" dimension (29.96; SD: 9.23; 95 % CI: 29.01-34.87). Age showed statistically significant negative correlations with the overall and dimension scores (p < 0.05). Comparisons by work sector and type of contract reflected that nurses working in the private sector and those with permanent contracts had higher motivation and commitment scores.

CONCLUSIONS

Preceptors had positive perceptions of their role in undergraduate nursing students' education. Age, work sector, type of contract and time allocation should be considered when designing strategies to enhance the involvement, motivation, commitment, and satisfaction of nurses in their experiences as preceptors for undergraduate nursing students. Improving the preceptorship experience will benefit both nurses and students by improving preparation, satisfaction, and retention.

Effectiveness of an online program using telesimulation for academic-clinical collaboration in preparing nurse preceptors' roles

AIM

To evaluate the effectiveness of an online program on nurse preceptors' knowledge and self-efficacy in their roles to support students' clinical education, and to examine their online experience.

BACKGROUND

Professional development of nurse preceptors is paramount to fostering work readiness of future graduate nurses on entering the workforce. The support from academic institutions in developing preceptors' roles in clinical teaching and assessment is pivotal.

DESIGN

This study employed a mixed-methods design.

METHOD

A total of 59 nurse preceptors from six healthcare institutions participated in an online preceptor program by collaborating with academic educators in facilitating student clinical learning and assessment through telesimulation following web-based instruction. Pre-test and post-tests were administered to evaluate the preceptors' knowledge and self-efficacy in their roles. Survey questionnaires and focus group discussions were conducted to evaluate their online experience. SQUIRE 2.0 guidelines were applied.

RESULTS

The preceptors demonstrated significant improvements (p < .001) in knowledge and levels of self-efficacy in their preceptor roles immediately and 1 month after the program. The following four themes emerged from their learning experiences: 'interactive learning approach', 'academic-practice collaboration', 'better understanding of clinical assessment tool' and 'application of teaching strategies'. The preceptors reported positively on their motivation to learn using the web-based instruction and on their telesimulation experience.

CONCLUSION

The study findings demonstrated effectiveness and feasibility of an online preceptor program to enhance preceptors' roles in supporting nursing students' transition to clinical practice, using a mix of web-based technologies to provide preceptors with self-directed and experiential learning approaches.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE

This study contributed to the development of an innovative online preceptor program that provided opportunity for academic-clinical collaboration and has broad applicability. The telesimulation created robust remote simulation experiences for preceptors, allowing them to collaborate with academic educators in facilitating students' clinical practice amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nurse preceptors' experiences of promoting and teaching fundamental care to undergraduate nursing students: A qualitative study

AIMS

To explore nurse preceptors' experiences in promoting and teaching the delivery of fundamental care to nursing students during their clinical period at nursing homes.

DESIGN

The study used a qualitative descriptive approach.

METHODS

Nine in-depth, semistructured interviews were conducted with clinical nurses employed at five different nursing homes. Data collection lasted from September 2020 to April 2021. The interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. Inductive, qualitative content analysis was employed to analyse the data.

RESULTS

Qualitative content analysis yielded one main category-'Fostering nursing students' knowledge and understanding of fundamental care'-supported by two subcategories: (i) 'Raising awareness of the importance of fundamental care' and 'Providing for learning through exchange and cooperation', which are interpreted as the ways nurse preceptors enable students to learn how to provide fundamental care during their clinical period at nursing homes.

CONCLUSION

By taking the role of nurse preceptors, clinical nurses act as enablers for students' learning of the provision of fundamental care within nursing homes as the learning context. Nurse preceptors possess the pedagogical skills to initiate and conduct nursing students' learning processes. The study reveals that nurse preceptors stress the importance of providing fundamental care to patients; hence, teaching students to provide fundamental care was also found to be important.

IMPACT

Within a nursing home context, nurses are responsible for providing fundamental care; therefore, they play an essential role in both providing and teaching about caregiving. The study shows that because of their preceptorship, nurse preceptors can enhance students' awareness of the importance of learning to provide fundamental care to patients. In addition, the study reveals that nurse preceptors work to enhance student's reflection and critical thinking by targeting the student's zone of proximal development, which represents a preliminary phase in students' learning.

Nurse preceptors' perceptions of the fundamentals of nursing knowledge gained by students in clinical rotations at nursing homes: A qualitative study

BACKGROUND

International evidence suggests that clinical nurses and nursing students perceive fundamental care as not being important, not complicated and even not a nurse's responsibility, thus resulting in negative patient outcomes.

AIM

To explore nurse preceptors' perceptions about the factors that influence nursing students' gaining of knowledge about fundamental care during their clinical practice at nursing home.

METHODS

A qualitative descriptive study using individual interviews was conducted from September 2020 to April 2021. Nine nurse preceptors employed at five nursing homes participated. The data were analysed by employing an inductive qualitative content analysis.

FINDINGS

The analysis generated one main category-'Fostering students' knowledge and understanding of fundamental care'-supported by two categories: (i) 'Nurse preceptors - enablers of nursing students' learning fundamental care' and (ii) 'Nursing home - a learning environment that facilitates students' learning about the delivery of fundamental care', which can be interpreted as the preconditions that may contribute to fostering students' knowledge and understanding of fundamental care.

CONCLUSION

The study reveals that nurse preceptors' attributes, an effective preceptorship and a social learning environment can create opportunities for nursing students learning the provision of fundamental care in nursing homes. Furthermore, Vygotsky's theory of sociocultural learning may be applied when teaching in clinical nursing education.