Thanking your preceptor...

[arabstarRN]

I am starting a job in a good hospital and will be with a preceptor for at least 8 weeks, if not 12. She seems really nice as I met her the other day and after all the hard work she is more than likely going to put into helping me (cant say for sure yet as I haven't orientated with her yet, just met her) out and making me a better nurse, I wondered, is it appropriate to thank her with some sort of small gift and a card at the end of my orientation? Is this something that a new nurse would do or is it kind of frowned upon as precepting could be considered part of their job? I am the type of person that is extremely grateful to anyone who is willing to share some knowledge and show me the ropes rather than turn their nose up at me because I am new and don't know near anything lol :) but am extremely willing to learn and seek out those opportunities. What is everyone's thoughts on thank you gifts and cards for your preceptor? Or would this be considered unethical, or should it just be a thank you card?

[TexRN08]

In my nursing school we were assigned one preceptor to work with through our entire class of hospital shifts and as part of our clinical requirements were we told to write our preceptors a thank you card on our last shift with them. I doubt that if this were inappropriate that we would be told to do this, and some people even brought gifts (nothing fancy just brownies, cakes or candy for our preceptor and the rest of the nursing staff to enjoy). So i say go for it, just don't go too over the top, at the very least I don't think you can really go wrong giving someone a thank you card :-)

[slave_diverRN]

A small giftcard to starbucks goes over well too. Its a thoughtful gesture, but not too over the top.