Preceptorship: professional development and support for newly registered practitioners

Changing preceptorship to achieve better quality training and less attrition in newly qualified nurses

The preceptorship period is of great importance in the career of a nurse, as he or she moves from being a student to a competent, accountable professional. Problems with the current preceptorship system for preceptors include not receiving adequate training—particularly in providing constructive feedback to preceptees. In addition, when a small number of nurses are repeatedly assigned preceptees to mentor, this can lead to burnout. Preceptees can feel overwhelmed by their first months as a newly qualified nurse (NQN) and can feel unsupported if a preceptor's teaching style or personality is unsuited to them. This can lead to attrition in the nursing workforce, a current problem. This article suggests a new way of organising preceptorship, by allowing preceptors to opt in to the scheme, providing a pool of energised and enthusiastic preceptors. In turn, NQNs could initially work with the pool of nurses before being given the choice of which preceptor to work with individually.

Managing support for newly qualified practitioners: lessons learnt from one health care region in the UK

AIM

The study mapped the support provided for newly qualified practitioners across Kent, Surrey and Sussex.

BACKGROUND

Newly qualified practitioners require support and guidance to facilitate their transition from student to their new role as qualified practitioner. Professional bodies advocate that programmes be provided but the type and intensity of that support is variable.

METHODS

Telephone interviews were conducted with 24 people delivering support for newly qualified practitioners across professions in 13 different health care trusts. Documents (n = 41) related to support programmes were analysed. Two case study site visits and a knowledge exchange conference of 45 delegates completed the data collection. Data were analysed using the constant comparative method of analysis.

RESULTS

Support for newly qualified practitioners was largely idiosyncratic to profession and Trust. Evidence emerged of a conceptual shift from basic competency acquisition toward a corporate induction programme.

CONCLUSIONS

Interdisciplinary programmes can provide generic transitional support, but the newly qualified practitioners favoured skill acquisition to help them to be effective in their new role. Measuring the impact of newly qualified practitioner support on patient outcome and the practitioner is required.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT

A career pathway for those who support newly qualified practitioners and one that includes specific preparation for the role is proposed.

Newly qualified nurses' experiences of a preceptorship

RESEARCH QUESTION

What was the experience of preceptorship like for newly qualified registered nurses in a healthcare trust?

METHOD

A qualitative approach was used with data collected using semi-structured one-to-one interviews with eight participants who had recently completed their preceptorship period. The data was analysed using Newell and Burnard's (2011) Pragmatic Approach to Qualitative Data Analysis, which involved a six-stage analysis process.

FINDINGS

Two main categories emerged from the data. These were Support Requirements and Expectations of Preceptorship. Support was further broken down into two themes: time and build confidence. Expectations of preceptorship was further broken down into two themes; understanding the process and understanding the preceptor's role.

CONCLUSION

The participants felt that preceptorship offered support and helped them in developing their confidence in the transition to registrant. It would appear that consistency of provision of preceptorship is a key issue that would warrant further study.