To precept or not to precept: Perspectives from nurse practitioners

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Healthcare Workforce Development
• Clinical Supervision

Background:

• Nurse practitioner (NP) preceptors are essential for training future NPs.
• Increasing NP student clinical hour requirements may exacerbate preceptor shortages.
• Previous research has overlooked non-preceptors, limiting understanding of preceptorship barriers and facilitators.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the factors influencing nurse practitioners' decisions regarding preceptorship.
• To identify facilitators and barriers to NP preceptorship from the perspectives of current, former, and never-preceptors.

Main Methods:

• A descriptive, phenomenological study design was employed.
• Semistructured interviews were conducted via Zoom, transcribed, deidentified, and analyzed using thematic analysis.
• Sixty nurse practitioners participated, including current preceptors, previous preceptors, and individuals who had never precepted.

Main Results:

• Key facilitators included institutional support, positive student traits, clear educational expectations, and incentives.
• Significant barriers comprised time constraints, specialty limitations, negative student characteristics, lack of institutional support, and discomfort in the clinical role.
• Both preceptors and non-preceptors identified positive student characteristics and clear expectations as facilitators, and time as a barrier.

Conclusions:

• Nurse practitioner programs should ensure student preparedness and clear expectations to facilitate preceptorship.
• Strategies are needed to mitigate the time burden associated with precepting.
• Further research should examine the role of healthcare organizations and systems in supporting NP preceptorship.