Effective collaboration enhances rural preceptorship training

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Mental Health Nursing
• Workforce Development

Background:

• Preceptorship is an underestimated strategy for influencing nursing students' attitudes towards mental health nursing.
• Effective preceptorship can enhance clinical learning, promote recruitment and retention, and foster collaborative supervision.
• Challenges exist in providing quality preceptorship, especially without adequate training and support for preceptors.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the implementation of a preceptorship training program to address recruitment issues in a rural mental health service.
• To evaluate the program's impact on psychiatric nurses' approach to and practice of preceptorship.
• To discuss the value of training a critical mass of preceptors within a mental health service.

Main Methods:

• Design and delivery of a specific preceptorship training program for nurses.
• Program evaluation to assess its effectiveness and impact.
• Discussion of broader implications for training and workforce development.

Main Results:

• The training program was implemented to address recruitment challenges, particularly at the undergraduate level.
• Evaluation data informed subsequent impacts on psychiatric nurses' preceptorship practices.
• The study highlights the importance of training for effective preceptorship.

Conclusions:

• Preceptorship training is crucial for improving nursing students' willingness to enter mental health nursing.
• Investing in preceptor training can enhance recruitment and retention in rural mental health services.
• Developing a critical mass of trained preceptors is vital for service-wide improvements.