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This paper discusses challenging issues and guidelines for securing preceptorships for advanced practice registered nurse (APRN) students, i.e., clinical nurse specialists, nurse midwives, nurse practitioners, and nurse anesthetists. Student preceptorships are facilitated when there is a relationship that fosters collaboration and cooperation between faculty members in academic institutions and preceptors in clinical institutions. The faculty member in the academic setting ensures that requirements for the course and clinical experiences can be met through the choice of preceptor and patient population or setting within a clinical institution. Faculty must identify, select and contract with preceptors who are not only clinical experts, but who are able to function effectively in the roles of coach and mentor for the advanced practice nursing student. Consideration of the curriculum, student background and preceptor characteristics allows faculty to tailor the clinical assignment so that course and clinical outcomes and student goals are achieved. Faculty, preceptor and student engage in a dialog that delineates responsibilities for orientation, course and clinical expectations, supervision and evaluation. Securing written contracts and clarifying responsibilities is the result of a collaborative relationship that confirms the commitment of each partner in the preceptorship.

Interprofessional (IP) education has emerged globally as a means of improving overall healthcare quality, and to increase healthcare provider understanding of other roles. However, in situations of moral uncertainly, there are not clear procedures to address IP role interactions when tension and conflict emerge. This study reports secondary analysis findings from data in a large study related to moral distress in IP ethics consultations and collaborations. A basic qualitative, exploratory approach was utilized for data analysis with overtones of grounded theory. Eleven IP participants representing five disciplines comprised the sample. A model of IP role interaction was constructed from themes which were revealed to identify distinct facilitating actions and barriers as components of IP interactions serving to balance ethical decision making in the context of patient care. Specific role boundaries of the professions identified uncertainty as they interacted with multiple healthcare roles in patient care dilemmas.

A primary responsibility for nurse educators is to provide students with theoretical knowledge and clinical skills for professional nursing. In this study, laboratory faculty developed a creative pedagogical strategy to reduce nursing student stress during assessment of skill performance. Mock competencies were structured so that students participated in peer-to-peer evaluations in simulated competency assessments. The purpose of this study was to determine whether this pedagogical strategy had an impact on first-round pass rates for skills competency assessments.