[zahryia]

I'm still in nursing school, but I have a nagging question about preceptors. How does one become a preceptor? Do you voluntarily sign up for it? Do you get extra money in your paycheck? Do you have to have a BSN? Do you need a certain amount of years experience? Do you go through a training? Are you evaluated on your preceptor skills? If so, is it ongoing, or at the end of the year?

The reason I ask all these questions is because I'm reading all these horror stories and I'm wondering are these preceptors being sufficiently trained not only on 'precepting', but time management, attitude, safety, expectations, etc?

[babynurselsa]

It varies from place to place. Some places ask for volunteers, some places givea diff, some make it a part of clinical ladder, etc.
Some places have a new person walk in one day and peg the next person who walks by and informs them that they are preceptor.

[meownsmile]

No you dont have to have a BSN,, no you dont have to sign up for it (most places anyway), no you dont get paid for it (in most places anyway), no you dont have to have any special orientation for it, YES you do need to be competant in your position and have enough selfconfidence to help someone else learn how to organize and execute their job. In a way you are evaluated, usually by the orientee and nurse manager that can tell by the way the orientee is resonding whether you are any good at it or not.

In most places precepting a new employee is part of the job description. There are some who dont like to and they usually are not asked to because they have been proven to be difficult to work with anyway. Im sure in some large facilities they may have some compensation plan and maybe even a separate program for preceptors, but most likely only in the larger innercity hospitals. It would probly depend on their turnover rate as to whether they would put the expense into having a separate program for something like that.

[zahryia]

Originally Posted by babynurselsa

It varies from place to place. Some places ask for volunteers, some places givea diff, some make it a part of clinical ladder, etc.
Some places have a new person walk in one day and peg the next person who walks by and informs them that they are preceptor.

That's a real shame.

[MarySunshine]

This may not be exactly what you are asking, but I am a brand new nursing student preceptor in a clinical preceptorship program. I have never oriented a new nurse before (except for an occasional shift when no one elses was available). So, now I will have 1 nursing student assigned to me per 8 week clinical rotation. What was this formal processs....?

My manager asked me to and I like teaching and thought it would be a good growing experience, so I said yes. I have a BSN and that was one of the requirements (don't know why...). I have only 1 year experience. I had no training except for a 3 hour meeting where we discusssed the program and what classes the students had already had. I am not evaluated formally, to my knowledge. I wouldn't mind if I was, it would be helpful to me.

So, if you're worried that preceptors aren't thoroughly trained in precepting and don't have big incentives to precept nursing students then you may be right. But many nurses, myself included, are trying our best anyway.

[zahryia]

Originally Posted by MarySunshine

This may not be exactly what you are asking, but I am a brand new nursing student preceptor in a clinical preceptorship program. I have never oriented a new nurse before (except for an occasional shift when no one elses was available). So, now I will have 1 nursing student assigned to me per 8 week clinical rotation. What was this formal processs....?

My manager asked me to and I like teaching and thought it would be a good growing experience, so I said yes. I have a BSN and that was one of the requirements (don't know why...). I have only 1 year experience. I had no training except for a 3 hour meeting where we discusssed the program and what classes the students had already had. I am not evaluated formally, to my knowledge. I wouldn't mind if I was, it would be helpful to me.

So, if you're worried that preceptors aren't thoroughly trained in precepting and don't have big incentives to precept nursing students then you may be right. But many nurses, myself included, are trying our best anyway.

MarySunshine,

I think this may be a good opportunity to perhaps set up a protocol (i.e. training, evaluation, etc) of some sort over time. I think it would be a great initiative for your floor and potentially the whole hospital. Maybe you can set it up as a PDSA cylce and get feedback from both the experienced preceptors and graduate/new nurses.

I'm not familiar with the politics, but maybe you can just do it and then present some of the early findings to your DON or nurse manager before you even ask to start it.

[llg]

Originally Posted by MarySunshine

So, if you're worried that preceptors aren't thoroughly trained in precepting and don't have big incentives to precept nursing students then you may be right. But many nurses, myself included, are trying our best anyway.

As I am pretty sure you know, becoming a good preceptor takes time and practice -- just like becoming a competent patient care provider. It souds to me as if you will do just fine.

As for the orientees ... they need to remember that they are not the only ones who are still learning. Just as the patients must accept the fact that students and orientees participate in their care, the orientee must accept the fact that some of her preceptors and instructors are also still learning their roles.

llg

[luckylucyrn]

Where I work preceptors get a bonus of like 500 dollars after precepting a new grad, I think 250 for a nurse that already has experience. Most of our preceptors here have had several years nursing experience and are considered the "best" in the unit. They are asked to precept and we have a preceptor "course". Of course they dont always get into the course before they are precepting, and unfortunatley we have so few preceptors that we end up with 2-3 orientees for one preceptor at a time.

[meownsmile]

2-3 orientees per preceptor at 1 time??? That kind of sounds like a accident waiting to happen. New nurses need a preceptors undivided attention for the most part the first few weeks of orientation. Anything less than the preceptors undivided attention warrants a pretty dangerous experience for the orientee, preceptor and the patient.

[catlady]

Originally Posted by meownsmile

2-3 orientees per preceptor at 1 time??? That kind of sounds like a accident waiting to happen. New nurses need a preceptors undivided attention for the most part the first few weeks of orientation. Anything less than the preceptors undivided attention warrants a pretty dangerous experience for the orientee, preceptor and the patient.

They must figure that since a nursing instructor can have ten students at a time, two orientees must be a piece of cake. Not that I agree.