Should we use preceptorships in undergraduate nursing education?

Better Together: Collaboration to Enhance the Nursing Workforce

Nursing is a demanding profession that calls for nurses to devote time, energy, advocacy, and compassion to improving clients' lives while providing safe, efficient care. Nurses make personal sacrifices to meet their clients' needs, which do not come without costs to their well-being. An increased migration of novice nurses out of the profession and the need to increase the volume of the nursing workforce by an average of 8% annually to address the projected nursing shortage presents a compelling need for immediate action. Reimagining the concept of academic-service partnerships to provide exposure to opportunities that can equip and empower novice nurses as they emerge into professional practice cannot be underestimated. Implementing approaches to assess, support, and nurture the health and well-being of nurses and health care organizations is foundational to retention.

An Innovative Academic/Practice Partnership to Support Nursing Workforce Needs and Student Clinical Education

ABSTRACT

Innovation is needed to solve nursing workforce issues during times of crisis. A collaborative effort between a hospital system and several universities resulted in the Bridge to Professional Practice Program that was implemented during a period of high patient volume and nursing student downtime. The program provided support for staffing needs and clinical hours to promote readiness for practice for students. The program evaluation outcomes and recommendations for improvement are addressed.

Nurse preceptors' perceptions of benefits, rewards, support, and commitment to the preceptor role in a new preceptorship program

BACKGROUND

Nurse preceptorship is a new concept emerging in the Iranian health care system. The purpose of this research was to assess preceptor nurses' perceived benefits, rewards, support, and commitment to the role in a new nurse preceptorship program in Iran and to examine the relationships between these concepts.

METHODS

A descriptive correlational study was employed, and using total population sampling method, 45 preceptor nurses were recruited from a tertiary referral teaching hospital in Iran. Data were collected using the Preceptor's Perception of Benefits and Rewards Scale, the Preceptor's Perception of Support Scale, and the Commitment to the Preceptor Role Scale. Descriptive statistics and correlational analysis were used to analyse data.

RESULTS

Preceptors' commitment to their role was positively and moderately associated with their perceived benefits and rewards (r = 0.503, p = 0.001) and perceived support (r = 0.430, p = 0.003). None of the examined demographic and practice variables showed statistically significant association with commitment to the preceptor role.

CONCLUSIONS

Commitment to the preceptor role was associated with benefits, rewards and support that preceptor nurses perceive in relation to their role. To optimise the effectiveness of nurse preceptorship programs, benefits, rewards, recognition, and support should be integral to planning of these programs.

Preceptorship as part of the recruitment and retention strategy for nurses? A qualitative interview study

AIM

To explore aspects that are important for the integration of preceptorship and processes for recruitment and retention of nurses.

BACKGROUND

The shortage of nurses is a global concern that has a major impact on health care systems around the world. However, earlier research has not considered whether preceptorship of nursing students can be an integral part of recruitment and retention of nurses.

METHOD

A descriptive design with a qualitative approach was used. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten preceptors and six ward managers in different health care specialties in Sweden.

RESULTS

Three aspects were found central for integrating preceptorship with recruitment and retention: perceptions of preceptorship, the organisation of preceptorship and the way preceptorship operates in relation to recruitment and retention strategies.

CONCLUSION

The findings suggest that preceptorship and recruitment strategies could both benefit from being integrated.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT

It is central for nursing managers to develop organisational practices that enable the integration of preceptorship with recruitment and retention of nurses. This could increase the quality of both preceptorship and the work environment in general.