Tips to impress your preceptor?

LadyT618, MSN, APRN, NP · Dec 24, 2019

Be on time

Wear your school ID always

Be always prepared (with stethoscope and similar items necessary for assessment)

Ask questions, be interested in what is going on (without brown-nosing)

Read, read, read...to know what to expect in the typical patient (dependent on the population you are rotating)

Don't complain if asked to do "menial" tasks at your clinical site. Be humble.

That's all I can think of as I try to fall asleep here at minutes to 3 in the morning LOL. Go knock it out, you got this ?

SopranoKris, MSN, RN, NP · Dec 24, 2019

Make sure you have references quickly available so you can come up with a diagnosis and plan (including drug & dosage) right away. They typically see patients every 15 to 20 minutes in the family care setting, so you've got to be able to accurately diagnose and formulate a plan...or at least come up with a reasonable plan. Just know, it takes time to learn how to do it, but they'll be impressed if you know the common diseases & first-line meds (e.g. DM2, HTN, COPD, MDD, anxiety, etc.)

Have Up-to-Date on your phone or tablet. Most docs I've worked with so far all use it.

Learn how to give a good SOAP presentation to your preceptor. Ask them how they would like to present cases so you can be timely and stay as close to schedule as possible.

Ask questions! Read anything they tell you to read.

Good luck ?

allnurses Guide · Dec 24, 2019

If they ask you something and you don't know it, ask them to ask you again the next day - and know it then. Nothing more irritating than going over something and then next time it comes up, the student still didn't bother to learn it.