Factors influencing preceptor nurses' clinical teaching behavior: A cross-sectional study

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Healthcare Professional Development

Background:

• Preceptor nurses are vital for translating theory to practice and retaining new nurses.
• Limited research exists on preceptors' teaching behaviors, critical reflection, clinical reasoning, and work ratios.
• This study examined factors influencing clinical teaching behavior in preceptor nurses.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify significant factors affecting clinical teaching behavior among South Korean preceptor nurses.
• To ascertain preceptors' critical reflection competence, clinical reasoning ability, and recognition of patient safety management importance.
• To analyze the influence of preceptor-preceptee work-ratios on clinical teaching behavior.

Main Methods:

• Cross-sectional study design involving 216 preceptor nurses in Seoul, Republic of Korea.
• Online questionnaires assessed critical reflection, clinical reasoning, patient safety perception, and clinical teaching behavior.
• Data analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-tests, ANOVA, correlation, and hierarchical multiple regression.

Main Results:

• Perception of patient safety management (β=0.35), clinical reasoning (β=0.34), and critical reflection (β=0.17) significantly influenced teaching behavior.
• Reduced preceptor workload (β=0.12) and favorable preceptor-preceptee work-match ratios (β=0.09) also impacted teaching behavior.
• These factors explained 66.7% of the variance in clinical teaching behavior.

Conclusions:

• Patient safety perception, clinical reasoning, critical reflection, workload reduction, and work-match ratios are key factors in preceptor clinical teaching.
• Findings suggest developing training programs to enhance these competencies and organizational strategies to support preceptors.
• Recommendations include alleviating preceptor burden and standardizing preceptorship programs.