Need tips / ideas for precepting

[cardiac.cure03]

I work in a CCU and am getting assigned a nursing student for 10 weeks to precept. This is her last quarter of her BSN degree, and she's spending it with me working my hours for credit. I've done this once before with someone for 10 wks and then a few other times with other students for a day or so.

From my last experience, I've realized that I could use a little guidance and advice on how to precept a student. I am planning to make an outline of things that we cover a lot in our unit and give it to the student in advance to hopefully look over. Does anyone know of a website or any type of online outline for preceptors?

Thanks in advance!

[WalkieTalkie, RN]

I have also oriented a student for her 10 weeks before. It was my first time doing any sort of precepting and it was a learning experience for both of us.

I would always ask her what her instructors were expecting her to learn and what paper work she needed to work on for certain weeks. I would also quiz her on interventions and drugs and print out articles related to a procedure or diagnosis our patient had. We would also cover a lot of evidenced based practice and I would go over the "whys" of some of the things we do.

If you do find a site, I would be interested in looking at it for my next student.

[classicdame, MSN, EdD]

Precepting is not so much teaching as guiding. You are allowing them to practice making decisions then gently guide them to the right one. You should be given a list of objectives from the school. I generally allow them to experience things you do not get in school - like how to self-schedule or read the staffing grid. Let them experience MULTIPLE patients, even if all they do is review labs for a group of patients, review orders and procedure results for several patients (doing it throughout the day on multiple patients is an eye opener!); transcribe MD orders on multiple patients; delegate to unlicensed personnel---all of this with your supervision of course. I set a goal for each day and let the student mark off what was accomplished and if was not done, why not. For instance, one day I might have the student admit as many as possible. Another day, do the discharge teaching and subsequent documentation. I do not have a website to offer but hope this gives you a few ideas.

[ellakate]

It has been a while since I worked in a hospital, but having her check the crash cart will help her learn about meds. It's a good forum for teaching, too. Thank you for precepting!