Objective. To evaluate hospital pharmacy preceptors' perceptions of preceptorship and to explore the factors that might influence their stress and satisfaction after joining the newly implemented six-year pharmacy program in South Korea.
Methods.A nationwide, cross-sectional, self-administered online survey was conducted for preceptors at hospital pharmacy practice sites in 2015, using a 47-item survey instrument.Results. Among 601 preceptors in 63 hospital pharmacies, 395 preceptors from 36 hospitals responded to the survey (response rate: preceptor 65.7%; site 57.1%). Preceptors reported a high stress and PAP Manuscript A J P E A c c e p t e d D r a f t moderate role satisfaction and likelihood of continuing preceptorship. Workload was a major cause of stress and a barrier for continuing preceptorship, whereas improvement of professional knowledge and performance ability was considered the most important benefit and motivation of preceptorship.Monetary rewards were the most valuable incentive. Extra work hours used for precepting was a significant positive covariate for stress, while willingness to engage in preceptorship was a negative covariate for stress and positive covariate for satisfaction. Self-perceived assessments of preceptors' competencies showed moderate performance and, following an Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA), passion for teaching students and professional role model was identified as items in need of improvement.Conclusion. This study investigated relevant issues associated with preceptors under new experiential education. The findings will help to enhance the quality of hospital pharmacy experiential education.