Nurse practitioner student preceptor orientation via a Wiki

Abstract

Nurse practitioner education programs have always partnered with nurse practitioners (NPs) to serve as preceptors for students completing clinical requirements of their graduate level nurse practitioner programs.  In this model faculty rely on nurse practitioners for the clinical education of nurse practitioner students.  Therefore, the preceptor role is a crucial element of NP education particularly in distance learning programs. Orientation to the role is essential to ensure educational competencies are achieved. Nursing faculty struggle with implementation of orientation that is efficient and meets the needs of all preceptors for all clinical courses.   Orientation requirements to the nurse practitioners’ role as preceptor can be a barrier to acquiring and retaining preceptors. The purpose of this study was to acquire information from NP preceptors regarding willingness to participate in a NP preceptor orientation program, the type of information they desired in a NP preceptor orientation, and the preferred delivery system for this information. Former preceptors from our school of nursing’s database were sent an online survey with 15 questions regarding orientation for NP preceptors. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize preceptor needs and preceptor barriers. Qualitative findings from written comments found many preceptors perceive school of nursing faculty organizational support is vital in terms of how positively they view their role as a preceptor and their willingness to participate in an orientation program. The results of the survey were used to re-design nurse practitioner preceptor orientation in our school of nursing. The WIKI online method was chosen due to its ease of information dissemination, which met the administrative needs of faculty; and its convenience and availability, which met the accessibility needs of preceptors.