The Role of the Preceptor and the Faculty in Clinical Education - Essay Sample

Introduction

Clinical education is carried out under the supervision of trained and skilled preceptors, enabling the provision of practical experience to the nursing students needed to help them become advanced practice nurses. It is important to note that the preceptor's most significant responsibility is to socialize the nursing students into the role of the nurse practitioners in health provision via informal and formal education. The nursing preceptor guides the learners into clinical learning experiences, acts as a role model, and facilitates student autonomy.

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Role of the Preceptor as Clinician and Educator

The preceptor is a registered nurse who has tremendous experience in the nursing field and has a lot of enthusiasm about the profession, thus having a great desire to teach. He or she is involved in preparing nursing students by applying a variety of skills. To fulfill the preceptor role, demonstration of nursing actions, professional interactions in role modeling on the care unit, and giving appropriate and timely feedback to the students are the key factors that are considered (University of Pittsburgh, 2020). The preceptor provides an environment that is conducive and suitable for learning and determines the appropriate care given to the patients as assignments for students. For this to happen, the preceptor is expected to assess the learners' learning needs and collaborate with them to come up with objectives, goals, and learning outcomes. The knowledge that the preceptor has on the clinical area and the patient population assists in guiding students in selecting appropriate and achievable goals and outcomes.

Communication between the preceptor and students and the faculty is crucial. The students are allowed to voice their issues and concerns, helping them see how the expert nurses tackle problems and give individualized care to patients. The preceptor then offers respectful, honest, and timely feedback to the students, whether negative or positive. The communication between the faculty and the preceptor involves evaluating the progress of the students as well as the overall experience whereby the preceptor engages the faculty members with any concerns.

The preceptor is the principal director of the overall objectives and goals for the nursing students' practical experience to ensure they attain the desired outcome objectives formulated by the College faculty (University of Pittsburgh, 2020). The preceptor helps the learners in applying the theory taught in the classroom to clinical practice and evaluates the learning objectives that have been identified by the students. The preceptor is involved in assessing the nature of specific patient-care encounters that enable the students to meet their learning goals and objectives at the learning level in the nursing practitioner curriculum and employs the suitable methods of teaching on their targets.

The preceptor is tasked with assessing the student's ability in the management of clinical assignments and is expected to be aware of any situation in which a student may need direct supervision, especially when handling complex nursing activities. The preceptor is also involved in validating the ability of the student to meet the course outcomes.

Role of the Faculty

The faculty members link the preceptor, students, and the clinical nursing site. The faculty is responsible for the orientation of the preceptor to the curriculum and the course's expectations, course outlines, and objectives in a written form and other course-specific forms. The faculty plays a vital role in facilitating students' learning and fosters excellent communication to ensure that the outcomes are favorable. Through the establishment of effective communication, the faculty can initiate working relationships between the student and the preceptor hence setting the tone for a proper clinical experience that will be beneficial to the patients in the future practice of the students as nurses. Since the faculty is tasked with student evaluation, the two-way communication between the preceptor and the students is essential (College of Nursing – Utah, 2020). The faculty's availability to the students and preceptor is through conferencing as well as over the phone. As the term or course begins, the faculty equips the preceptor with contact information, enabling them to work together in deciding the appropriate ways to communicate.

The faculty helps the students identify the nursing course's learning outcomes and provides the preceptor with the required course materials. The faculty offers expectations and information on the student performance to the preceptor, which encourages student-oriented teaching that is interactive. The faculty is also involved in monitoring the student's progress in achieving the learning outcomes and giving the appropriate feedback (McClure & Black, 2013). Many nursing schools depend on the services offered by clinical faculty or adjunct faculty in the teaching of students undertaking undergraduate courses to gain clinical experiences. The faculty recognizes and approves the clinical expertise and skills provided by the clinical faculty. They are indispensable, especially in instances where there is a lack of enough full-time nursing faculty. The nursing faculty in conjunction with the preceptor establishes a working relationship whose main aim is to propagate the learning experience of the nursing students through the acquisition of clinical skills and expertise that is vital in improving the outcomes of the patients. Therefore, this serves as a proper partnership that is beneficial to all the stakeholders involved hence promoting the nursing profession through production of qualified and experienced new nurses.

References

College of Nursing – Utah, (2020). Roles of preceptors, faculty, & students. For Graduate Clinical Practicums. https://nursing.utah.edu/preceptor/roles.php

McClure, E., & Black, L. (2013). The role of the clinical preceptor: an integrative literature review. Journal of Nursing Education, 52(6), 335-341. https://www.healio.com/nursing/journals/jne/2013-6-52-6/%7Be52caf15-fc6a-4893-b9de-18a4fe408426%7D/the-role-of-the-clinical-preceptor-an-integrative-literature-review

University of Pittsburgh, (2020). Preceptor responsibilities. University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing. https://www.nursing.pitt.edu/continuing-education/becoming-preceptor/preceptor-responsibilities