The Nursing Performance of Preceptored and Non-preceptored Baccalaureate Nursing Students

Abstract

In the 1960s professors who taught nursing began experimenting with preceptorship as a method of teaching clinical nursing skills. Until that time students were taught in small groups of eight to 12, usually during the day shift, in a health care facility within driving distance of the educational institution. Using a preceptorship method, one student (preceptee) is placed with one experienced nurse (preceptor), works any shift, and theoretically may undergo preceptorship in any health care facility in Canada. Students who have undergone preceptorship have cited many advantages: the teaching is individualized; there is more feedback, independence, self-confidence, and support; other health care staff are more accepting of the student, and it is less stressful. The disadvantages are that there are no post-conferences, students work 12-hour shifts, and the preceptor may have insufficient knowledge in physiology and anatomy. At the University of Alberta, preceptorship was introduced in 1985 to the third year baccalaureate nursing students who are required to take a compulsory six-week spring session course entitled "Nursing 464 - Nursing of Clients with Health Deviations." It is an intense course, offering students the chance to care for "individuals and/or groups with complex behavioural" and "organic deviations." Students are advised not to take other courses concurrently. The major thrust of the course is for the nursing student to consolidate clinical nursing skills and to integrate theoretical and practical knowledge.