PERCEPTORSHIP

What is a preceptor?

A preceptor is an advanced degreed professional clinician who provides clinical supervision and mentoring. The preceptor offers staff development, training, technical assistance, and quality control through the development of an individualized tutorial relationship with each counselor. It is a unique program of professional growth and development for each counselor being supervised.

What is the Clinical Preceptorship Program?

The Clinical Preceptorship Program is a multi-site service of clinical supervision and on-the-job training. The Preceptorship Program provides nursing students an opportunity to achieve their maximum effectiveness through on-the-job mentoring and ongoing clinical experience. The program provides in-depth clinical supervision and training by offering a unique opportunity for a close working relationship and learning experience with a high-level clinician in an atmosphere of trust and exchange.

The overall mission of the Preceptorship Program is to ensure continuous improvement and quality of the services provided by the nursing students being supervised. This is accomplished by meeting the primary goals of the program:

• To build nursing students skills through assessment, observation, and curriculum planning for each individual being supervised;

• To provide interpersonal tutorial relationships centered on the individualized goals of skill development and professional growth via learning and practicing;

• To provide them with training and supervision for the duration of the affiliation;

Attainment of these goals is enhanced through the use of all resource materials developed specifically for the Preceptorship Program. These materials include the Nursing Student Workbook and the Clinical Preceptorship Guidelines. Having developed a means to structure clinical supervision throughout the Hospital Affiliation, their Workbook helps students structure their skill development through a variety of learning sources, such as hands-on experiences, resource materials, activities, readings, and self-tests on each skill area. The Clinical Preceptorship Guidelines, the companion guide for preceptors, provides the recommended concepts, methods, exercises, and assignments for clinical supervision, and the instructions for each activity found in the Nursing Student Workbook.