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Preceptor
Introduction
Preceptor is a practice which is quickly becoming more
common and frequent.
Nurses who are experienced and have seniority in the field are the preceptors, and they help new nurses or student nurses by guiding them, sharing their experience and knowledge and integrating them in the new position and place. The exact definition of a preceptor is a person, who is generally a nurse from the staff, that "teaches, counsels, inspires, serves as a role model, and supports the growth and development of an individual (the novice) for a fixed and limited amount of time with the specific purpose of socializing the novice into the new role" (Morrow, 1984, as cited in O'Malley, Cunlitte & Breeze, 2000.
This definition describes the many roles or functions the preceptor fills, and illustrates how difficult and complex it is to be a preceptor. Furthermore, being a preceptor is especially important since it affects the quality of care given by preceptees (the new nurses or student nurses which are taught and guided by the preceptors) to patients. As highlighted in the analysis of the available literature on the subject, preceptorship is an "essential part of the socialization and professional development of nurses with a new registerable qualification" (O'Malley, Cunlitte & Breeze, 2000.
It was also found by Davis (2003) that the professional development of nurses, which is incorporated in the preceptorship program, is linked to high quality service provision (as cited in Davidson, Glasper & Donaldson, 2005). Hence, it is obvious that the preceptorship improves the quality of care being given to patients.
The responsibilities of a preceptor
A preceptor has many responsibilities, which can be divided into two groups- fundamental responsibilities and procedural responsibilities. The ones of the former group are: commitment to the role of the preceptor and desire to teach and share expertise with co-workers.
The responsibilities of the latter group, the procedural responsibilities, include: orientation and socialization or the preceptees to the unit, assessment of the developing objectives of the preceptees, being a role model, observing and evaluating the preceptees, giving constructive criticism and supporting, facilitating preceptees' development, supervising patient care provided by the preceptees to ensure it is safe and competent nursing, documenting a summary of the preceptee's performance and maintaining strict confidentiality of all preceptee-related information (O'Malley, Cunlitte & Breeze, 2000, Smith, 2006).
The complexity and multiplicity of the preceptor's responsibilities were recognized by Cerinus and Ferguson (1994), and were compared by Shamian and Inhaber (1985) to the process of nursing: the preceptor needs to assess the preceptees, plan the preceptorship, implement the teaching and role modeling, and evaluate preceptees' evaluations (as cited inO'Malley, Cunlitte & Breeze, 2000. The entire process of the preceptorship is long and demands much thought and planning.
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