Preceptor Programs

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Is this something only a few nursing programs do?

I have only found 2 preceptor programs in my area..and both were 80 miles away..one was thru a university the other thru a teaching hospital.

If none of the nursing programs around me offer this..could I ask one of the nearby hospitals if they would be interested in allowing me to become a student nurse or something similar?

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Yeekkss..I don't know what to say....your school should have a clinical preceptorship...There is know way you can find experience without any experience....unless your a CNA???

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They do clinicals, but from the description of the preceptor programs you are dealing one on one with a nurse..shadowing them during their shift and its usually on a floor you are interested in..LD, ICU ect.

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at my school we have clinicals all five semesters, and our fifth semester we get to do a preceptorship through school for school in addition to clinicals. in the preceptorship, we get to pick a floor of a hospital and work one-on-one with a nurse. maybe your school has a similar program and they haven't told you about it yet! if you look at the list of courses at my school, you'd never guess we have a preceptorship. they call it professional nursing clinical or something like that! nursing schools seem good at hiding things. i hope you get a chance to precept.

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Specializes in Pediatric Hem/Onc.

Yikes. And here I thought preceptorships were a standard requirement for graduation across the board. Are you sure you don't have preceptor hours in your final term? For my program you have to have at least 120 hours to graduate.

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How nursing education is constructed (number of lectures, how clinical education is handled, etc) is determined by individual Schools and their faculty. There are no national standards. Different states also require different things.

In our BSN program, the final clinical experience (approx 175 hours over 6 weeks) is a synthesis practicum where individual students are paired with a working nurse. Our Direct Entry MSN program is 100% precepted (no traditional clinical groups) and students spend 1,000 hours in 1:1 precepted experiences. So even one School can have different ways in which preceptorships are conducted.

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Well..maybe they are just "hiding it" then...I really hope so. None of the community college programs have anything about a preceptor program in the last semester...or I should say nothing in their brochure's/applications about it.

I guess I need to contact each program and just ask them. I honestly would of never even known to ask if I hadnt seen in listed at the university. I was instantly intrigued and hope I get the opportunity.

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One program list Acute and Extended health care issues and Trends Issues and Management of Nursing as the last semester.

The other list Adv Med Surg Nursing..............

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One program list Acute and Extended health care issues and Trends Issues and Management of Nursing as the last semester.

The other list Adv Med Surg Nursing..............

I think your best bet is to just call the admissions office and ask them how their program handles preceptorships.

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I was able to speak with a recent grad from one of the programs this afternoon. she told me that the last semester they have you do 2 12 hour shifts with a preceptor of their choice. That doesnt seem long enough..but I guess its better than nothing.

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I was able to speak with a recent grad from one of the programs this afternoon. she told me that the last semester they have you do 2 12 hour shifts with a preceptor of their choice. That doesnt seem long enough..but I guess its better than nothing.

I'd still call programs directly and speak to them.

I know in my program, for the last 6 months we work one-on-one with the same RN 25 - 30 hours a week.

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Specializes in NICU.
Yikes. And here I thought preceptorships were a standard requirement for graduation across the board. Are you sure you don't have preceptor hours in your final term? For my program you have to have at least 120 hours to graduate.

Actually, my program is JUST NOW implementing a preceptor-ship program. My cohort will be the first to experience this. Before that, there was a 'management' clinical, but nothing as dedicated as a preceptorship. My cohort will have a 10 week Med/Surg II clinical and then a 5 week preceptorship where we need to get about 120 hours.

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