Mentoring and self-efficacy for advanced nursing practice: a philosophical approach for nurse practitioner preceptors

Nurse practitioners (NPs), frequently called upon by graduate schools of nursing to be preceptors for NP students, are asked to play an active role in the socialization of these students as capable primary care providers. Much is expected of the preceptor in the typical short-term clinical preceptorship with little guidance available to her or him. A mentoring model of clinical education, while representing a longer-term commitment for preceptors than usual precepting arrangements, may ultimately be a more effective model for student learning and more satisfying for the preceptor than currently practiced models. Eastern philosophical principles, very much in harmony with valued nursing approaches to relationships, can provide a framework for examining mentoring as a strategy for promotion of self-efficacy for advanced practice that can be of benefit to both the NP preceptor and the NP neophyte.