Preceptors' experiences training new graduate nurses: a hermeneutic phenomenological approach

Preceptors are a key to retaining new graduate nurses in a hospital setting. Thus, it is important to understand new staff teaching experiences from their own perspectives. Preceptor experience is an inadequately explored topic in Taiwan.

The purpose of this study was to explore preceptor experiences related to their training of new graduate nurses in a hospital setting in Taiwan.

For this interpretive phenomenological study, researchers purposively recruited 15 nurse preceptors from a medical center in central Taiwan. Study data were collected by means of semistructured, in-depth interviews. Tape recordings were transcribed verbatim, and transcripts were analyzed using a hermeneutic circle approach.

Three general themes captured the new nurse training experiences of the preceptors: (a) applying a variety of teaching strategies, (b) feeling the burden of being a preceptor, and (c) developing a sense of achievement.

Being in the role of both a preceptor and nurse was perceived as a challenge by participants because of heavy workloads and fears of failure. Thus, reducing the preceptor's patient care responsibilities while educating new nurses should be a priority. This study also found cultivating a positive work climate as crucial to support preceptors and new nurses so that preceptors do not feel alienated or overly stressed. A workshop is a useful strategy to introduce preceptors and new nurses to standardized training procedures and documents; this, in turn, can provide a more holistic approach to teaching and learning and reduce pressures on preceptors caused by additional, unfamiliar paperwork.