A Structured and Collaborative Clinical Teaching Training Program for Nursing Preceptors in Uganda

Nursing as a practice is an outcome of clinical teaching and learning which is facilitated by preceptors. During the process of providing clinical services to patients, nurses precept nursing students (service and education). In Uganda, there is no formal training program for nursing preceptors which equip them to conduct clinical teaching.  However, it is an occupational requirement that preceptors teach nursing students allocated to their wards to perform nursing skills. The only tutor training college in the country does not offer preceptor training programmes. The college trains very few clinical instructors who are based at the educational institutions; thus untrained preceptors in clinical teaching take on the responsibility for clinical teaching for the many nursing students in their wards and clinical units. The clinical teaching and preceptorship models that emanate from better-resourced high-income countries may not be suitable for the Ugandan context.  

The aim of the study was to describe the current clinical teaching practices and student satisfaction thereof, and then design, implement and evaluate a Structured and Collaborative Clinical Teaching Training Program (SCCTTP) for clinical teaching of pre-registration nursing students at a National Teaching and Referral Hospital in Kampala, Uganda.

This study comprised three sequential phases: Phase one - a descriptive cross-sectional survey of preceptors’ clinical teaching practices. The survey results in relation to the competences and preceptorship techniques, including clinical teaching skills, clinical supervision skills, assessment in the work place, formed the basis for the design of the Structured and Collaborative Clinical Teaching Training Program (SCCTTP) (phase two). Relevant literature was incorporated and local training needs and guidelines on preceptorship preparation were considered.  In phase three, the preceptors were and a pre and post-test intervention design was used to evaluate the effect of the training.

Ethical approval was obtained from the Faculty of Health Sciences Human Research Ethics Committee, University of Cape Town and the relevant authorities of Mulago National Teaching and Referral Hospital, Kampala. The initial results of the study will be presented.