The term preceptor: its interpretation in South African nursing colleges and international nursing literature

The purpose of this study was two-fold, namely: 1) to obtain clarity on the meaning of the term preceptor, and 2) to establish how the term preceptor is interpreted in the nursing colleges of the RSA and to ascertain whether this interpretation is consistent with the general connotation of the term in contemporary nursing literature. Dictionaries and relevant contemporary nursing literature formed the unit of analysis for obtaining clarity on the meaning of the term preceptor, while the unit of analysis for the second section of the study comprised responses of nursing college principals to a questionnaire. The data obtained in the investigation indicate that the term has acquired a specific connotation within the international nursing context and that specific defined attributes distinguishes it from the broad and general definition found in standard dictionaries. Within the South African nursing context the term preceptor has not yet acquired a specific connotation, but appears to mean different things to different people.