What Is a Nurse Preceptor?

A nurse preceptor plays an important role in the continuing development of a medical facility. When a facility hires an entry-level nurse, orientation and training is not enough to familiarize the new hire to facility and patient procedures. Hands-on experience and job shadowing is the best way to train. Medical facilities can leave no room for errors therefore, anyone granted permission to have contact with patients and facility duties must be skilled, confident and accurate. No matter how smart or school-trained a new nurse may be, chaos and confusion can often cause anxiety and feelings of inadequacy. A nurse preceptor's responsible is to help a medical facility by providing support to entry-level nurses.

Education

• Nurse preceptors are educators. They must have the patience, knowledge and skills needed to effectively guide new nurses through a series of complicated and simple exercises. Preceptors are clinical teachers and typically not a part of the nursing staff. They must observe the new nursing staff and provide feedback and constructive criticism. Preceptors are responsible for all aspects of new nurse training.

Patient Responsibilities

• A nurse preceptor is an experienced and competent clinician. Preceptors typically do not have patient care responsibilities; however they are responsible for selecting the right patients for their new nurse. They must select patients that present various scenarios in the efforts to provide a diverse series of practice simulations for their trainee. When the assignments are not in the control of the preceptor, they are controlled by the charge nurse.

Decisions

• Preceptors control the assignments of patients and the workload of new nurses. They decide when assignments can be increased and how complex an assignment should be. A preceptor will not assign too many patients to a new nurse who demonstrates uncertainty and insecurities. If a new nurse is unable to multi-task or handle new responsibilities, a preceptor will know how to decrease the workload and gradually increase it to a more steady work flow.

Evaluations

• A nurse preceptor must be able to deliver formative and summative evaluations. Formative evaluations provide feedback that help new nurses grow in their abilities. Summative evaluations are more encompassing and address overall performance. Formative evaluations relate to particular events, while summative evaluations are done on a weekly or monthly base. Throughout the training process, mangers should show genuine interest in getting to know the nurse and discussing evaluations with the nurse preceptor.