The Implementation of an Evidence-Based Advanced Nursing Preceptor Course
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Date
2015-08
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Publisher
The Ohio State University
Abstract
“It is critical that preceptors are aware of the unique opportunity they have to connect with a new person in ways that ease the new hire transition, while still maintaining patient safety during the learning process,” (Baggot, Hensinger, Parry, Valdes, & Zaim, 2005, p.139). Maintaining patient safety and care delivery by maximizing internal employees to provide quality role modeling for new employees emerged as a topic for further review from a nursing educator’s perspective. Further investigation as a nurse educator, targeting the effectiveness and intentional support of nurse preceptor development in conjunction with the onboarding and orientation process of new hire employees, became the focus of review for this author’s DNP final project. The aim of this project was to describe the identification, development and implementation of an Evidence-Based Advanced Nursing Preceptor Education course within a large, Midwestern, academic medical center. The purpose of this quality improvement project was to evaluate an advance nursing preceptor education course on nurse preceptors’ knowledge, skills, and perceptions to provide experienced nurse preceptors evidence-based education strategies to facilitate the orientation and onboarding of new staff. The rationale for this course was built upon the foundation that the participant has acquired skills and knowledge through experiential precepting, in order to address more complex topics related to the orientation and on-boarding process of new hire nurses (Neumann et al., 2004). Utilizing several levels of theoretical foundations for the development and implementation of this course, the pre-course baseline results were compared to the post-course results of nurse preceptor participants one week post attendance to assess the effects of the advanced nursing preceptor course on the preceptors’ knowledge, skills, and perceptions. A majority of the post-course results identified positive small to medium effect sizes for the course, which were consistent with clinically meaningful outcomes associated with the development and implementation of the course. The end results measuring the outcomes associated with the effects of preceptor knowledge, skills, and perceptions from attending an advanced nursing preceptor course were consistent with supporting literature that identified that organizational recognition and support of nurse preceptors result in an increase of nurse satisfaction and the internal motivation to learn based on the Adult Learning Theory by Malcolm Knowles.
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Keywords
Nurse Preceptor, Onboarding and orientation, Course evaluation, Nurse Preceptor Education, Evidence-based nurse preceptor education