Knowledge Bank

Preceptors function as an essential component of nurse practitioner (NP) education and collaborate to provide clinical training, preparation for practice, and evaluation of student clinical performance. With increasing numbers of NP students, the need for nurse practitioner preceptors is growing. Participating in NP preceptor training has been demonstrated to increase the preparedness, effectiveness, knowledge, and willingness to precept. NP preceptor training may be the greatest potential area for impact in the preceptor shortage. The purpose of this evidence-based practice project was to evaluate the implementation of a brief, modular, online NP preceptor training, using the evidence-based One Minute Preceptor Model, on its ability to increase the preparedness, effectiveness, knowledge, and willingness to precept. This project invited NPs who have not previously precepted NP students or who have been precepting for less than two years, who were affiliated with the author’s organizations to participate in training. Nearly 66% of participants (n=21) completed the training. Descriptive statistics and Wilcoxon signed rank tests of the data demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in respondents’ preparedness (p= <.0001), effectiveness (p= <.0001), and knowledge (p= 0.0001) to precept and also demonstrated an increase in willingness to precept with 80% of respondents indicating that they agree or strongly agree that training had a positive effect on their decision to precept in the future. Nurse Practitioner preceptor training using the One Minute Preceptor model provides an evidence-based framework for building preparedness, effectiveness, knowledge, and willingness of potential or existing nurse NP preceptors in these organizations. The potential exists for online NP preceptor training to be an effective approach to preceptor activation that will support and sustain the rapid growth of the NP profession.