Evaluating preceptorship experiences in a distance nursing program

Clinically based education for registered nursing students is a major component of a nursing curriculum. Nursing educational programs are becoming increasingly reliant on clinicians in hospitals and health care agencies to be preceptors for their students. The concept of preceptorship in baccalaureate nursing education continues to be endorsed as a viable alternative clinical teaching strategy (Myrick & Barrett, 1994). Preceptorship programs are necessary interventions to facilitate integrating and enacting the professional nurse role (Allanach & Jennings, 1990). The educational clinical preceptorship provides the opportunity for collaboration and the development of collegial relationships between members of academia and nursing service (Patton & Dowd, 1994). The highly competitive nature of today's health care institutions and the rapid changes in health and nursing care increase the need for nurse leaders. Students must acquire leadership and management skills and be competent as the role of the nurse changes to a participant in the organizational leadership and management process. The purpose of this study was to evaluate students' experiences regarding preceptor effectiveness in upper division leadership and management courses in a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) distance nursing program. Specifically, this article describes experiences from participating students enrolled in a performance/clinical rotation in the Spring 1996 semester throughout the state of California. For a successful clinical experience, it is important to evaluate the major components of the preceptorship experience.