Nursing Precpetor Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Nursing Precpetor - Essay Example This definition describes the many roles or functions the preceptor fills, and illustrates how difficult and complex it is to be a preceptor. Furthermore, being a preceptor is especially important since it affects the quality of care given by preceptees (the new nurses or student nurses which are taught and guided by the preceptors) to patients. As highlighted in the analysis of the available literature on the subject, preceptorship is an "essential part of the socialization and professional development of nurses with a new registerable qualification" (OMalley, Cunlitte & Breeze, 2000. It was also found by Davis (2003) that the professional development of nurses, which is incorporated in the preceptorship program, is linked to high quality service provision (as cited in Davidson, Glasper & Donaldson, 2005). Hence, it is obvious that the preceptorship improves the quality of care being given to patients. A preceptor has many responsibilities, which can be divided into two groups- fundamental responsibilities and procedural responsibilities. The ones of the former group are: commitment to the role of the preceptor and desire to teach and share expertise with co-workers. The responsibilities of the latter group, the procedural responsibilities, include: orientation and socialization or the preceptees to the unit, assessment of the developing objectives of the preceptees, being a role model, observing and evaluating the preceptees, giving constructive criticism and supporting, facilitating preceptees development, supervising patient care provided by the preceptees to ensure it is safe and competent nursing, documenting a summary of the preceptees performance and maintaining strict confidentiality of all preceptee-related information (OMalley, Cunlitte & Breeze, 2000, Smith, 2006). The complexity and multiplicity of the preceptors responsibilities were recognized by Cerinus and Ferguson (1994), and were