Supporting nurse practitioner education: Preceptorship recruitment and retention

Abstract

Objectives Clinical experience is an essential component of nurse practitioner (NP) education that relies heavily on preceptors. Recruitment and retention of preceptors is challenging due to many variables that can affect NP education and practice. We surveyed Canadian NP programs to understand their preceptorship structures, how they support preceptorship, and to identify gaps and challenges to recruitment and retention of preceptors. Methods An 18-item survey, developed by the NP Education Interest Group, was distributed to 24 universities across 10 Canadian provinces. Construct validity and reliability was assessed by experienced NPs and NP faculty. Data were analyzed using relative frequency statistics and thematic analysis. Participants consisted of administrative staff and/or faculty designated as responsible for recruitment and retention of NP preceptors. Results Seventeen returned surveys were analyzed and demonstrated more similarities than differences across Canada's NP programs, particularly related to barriers affecting recruitment and retention of preceptors. The findings identified NP programs have too many students for the number of available clinical sites/preceptors, resulting in overutilization, burnout, or refusal to take students. Competition with other health disciplines for clinical placements was identified as a challenge to placements. Respondents commented they lack time to recruit, provide follow-up, offer support, or seek preceptors' feedback due to competing work demands. They identified the need for standardized funding for preceptor remuneration and recognition across the country. Conclusion The findings suggest the need for exploring a wider intraprofessional collaboration among graduate NP programs/faculty, clinical placement sites, and NPs to facilitate the recruitment and retention of preceptors.

Formação de preceptores na residência Multiprofissional ou Uniprofissional na área da saúde: uma revisão integrativa

“…Nesse tópico, sete artigos foram incluídos, pois abordaram as diferentes formas de treinamento ou apoio para preceptores. As estratégias variaram de formato, sugerindo a falta de padrões estabelecidos para a formação dos preceptores (Bengtsson & Carlson, 2015a;Bengtsson & Carlson, 2015b;Bolt, Baransk, & Bell, 2016.;Correa et al, 2015;Cox, Cheon, Crooks, & Lee 2017;Staples & Sangster-Gormley, 2018), conforme observa-se no Quadro 4.…”

“…Foram encontradas outras estratégias canadenses (Staples & Sangster-Gormley, 2018), como jantares para preceptores com apresentações educacionais. Alguns programas ofereceram uma orientação formal para os preceptores, que consistiam em breves webinars, recursos online para preceptores, reconhecimento formal de preceptores, acesso à biblioteca da universidade em que o programa de residência está inserido, além de acesso à educação dos alunos com materiais complementares, apreciação e reconhecimento de preceptores em eventos de premiação, e ainda oficinas de preceptores (Staples & Sangster-Gormley, 2018).…”

Understanding nurse preceptors’ experiences in a primary health care setting: A descriptive qualitative study

“…This requirement adds on to an already busy clinical routine, resulting in inadequate time for preceptorship training, which hinders the ability to foster a positive learning environment (Chan et al., 2019). The preceptor–preceptee relationship is also affected as preceptors find it hard to find time for their preceptees, hampering their relationship building (Staples & Sangster‐Gormley, 2018).…”

“…Nurse preceptors also express inadequate support from the nursing management and from their peers, which leads to a sense of vulnerability (Girotto et al., 2019; Whitehead et al., 2016). Preceptors feel abandoned in their role as they do not receive feedback on their supervision and are unclear of the expectations that need to be met (Bos et al., 2015; Staples & Sangster‐Gormley, 2018). They also have increasing workload from the management on top of their role as a preceptor and this overwhelming workload can lead to preceptor ‘burnout’ (Jarnulf et al., 2019).…”

Educational challenges of postgraduate neonatal intensive care nursing students: A qualitative study

“…[ 7 ] Studies have shown that the provision of specialized nursing programs enables nursing students to act professionally in a particular population and develop their skills. [ 8 ] Nursing postgraduate courses are designed to meet these changing community and professional needs. In Iran, the nursing postgraduate program has been limited for more than two decades, which includes specialists nurse in medical-surgical nursing, pediatric nursing, community health nursing, and mental health nursing fields.…”