Paper
Thursday, 20 July 2006
This presentation is part of : Nursing Education Projects and Studies
Final Year Nursing Students' Perceptions of a Preceptor Model of Clinical Teaching
Pauline Price, PhD, Curriculum, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
Learning Objective #1: identify the factors that influence student learning in a preceptor model of clinical teaching from the students' perspectives.
Learning Objective #2: identify the students’ perceptions of strategies used by students and preceptors that influence student learning in a preceptor model.
Changes in the healthcare system have led to changes in the clinical experiences for nursing students in baccalaureate programs. Although several studies have focused on understanding learning outcomes and characteristics of effective teaching, there are limited descriptions of the process of learning in a preceptor model from a student perspective. This has contributed to the problem underlying this study: the limited documented understanding of nursing students’ perceptions of learning in the clinical area, and in particular learning in a preceptor model. The purpose of this investigation was to broaden our understanding of students’ perceptions, and to develop a theory about nursing students’ experiences with a preceptor model from the student perspective. Symbolic interactionism provided the theoretical basis for the research design. Three individual interviews with 8 participants from two educational institutions were audio-taped, transcribed and analyzed using the constant comparative method. Six major themes regarding the participants’ experiences with learning in a preceptor model were identified: learning to be a nurse; student strategies; preceptor strategies; positive factors influencing learning; negative factors influencing learning; and, clinical learning matrix. The analysis of the data and examination of the literature led to the development of the students’ perspectives on learning in preceptorship theory that describes the relationship among the phenomena examined in the study. While previous research suggests that the preceptor relationship is critical to learning, this study indicates that the students’ perceptions are that the preceptor relationship is only one of many factors associated with learning, and that the preceptor knowing the learner and creating learning opportunities that are individualized and provide the greatest learning gain are key in facilitating learning. The knowledge gained from this study will help nurses, nurse educators and nurse administrators in more effectively developing and implementing a preceptor model to better support student learning.

See more of Nursing Education Projects and Studies
See more of The 17th International Nursing Research Congress Focusing on Evidence-Based Practice (19-22 July 2006)