Exploring perceived barriers and facilitating factors affecting nurse preceptors’ effectiveness: Key implications for nursing faculty and hospital administration

Abstract

Nurse preceptors are essential to the success of senior baccalaureate students' learning in clinical placements. Although nurse preceptors are often expert bedside nurses, their effectiveness as nurse teachers is influenced by a variety of factors that can either facilitate or hinder their teaching. These factors are multifaceted and may be attributed to the preceptor, the student, the nursing faculty, or the hospital organization. How these factors affect the preceptor's effectiveness is not well understood, leaving a gap in the literature: preceptors' own descriptions of effectiveness when working with students are not available. The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to explore how clinical nurse preceptors perceive their effectiveness when working with senior baccalaureate nursing students. The study aimed to examine the lived experience of being a nurse preceptor to senior baccalaureate nursing students to foster potential strategies and policy implications for both nursing faculty and hospital administrators to best support preceptors in their roles. Data were collected from semi-structured virtual interviews, field and journal notes, and a demographic survey. Braun and Clarke’s thematic analysis was used to identify four central themes within the data: (a) preparation essential for preceptor success, (b) student readiness for clinical engagement, (c) the need for faculty communication, and (d) administrative challenges. Overall, preceptors desire training for their roles, better communication with faculty, clear expectations, a scope of practice for students, and genuine recognition for their work. This knowledge can foster practical and policy change initiatives for both nursing faculty and hospital administrators. Both of which may contribute to a more successful clinical learning experience, impacting students’ satisfaction, competence, and retention in the nursing profession.

Keywords

Badge-buddy / Barriers and facilitators / Effectiveness / Faculty implications / Nurse preceptors

AUTHORS CONTRIBUTIONS

Not applicable.

FUNDING

Not applicable.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST DISCLOSURE

The author declares that she has no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

INFORMED CONSENT

Obtained.

ETHICS APPROVAL

The Publication Ethics Committee of the Association for Health Sciences and Education. The journal’s policies adhere to the Core Practices established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

PROVENANCE AND PEER REVIEW

Not commissioned; externally double-blind peer reviewed.

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to privacy or ethical restrictions.

DATA SHARING STATEMENT

No additional data are available.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author would like to express her appreciation to her dissertation committee at Liberty University, particularly Dr. Rachel Joseph, for their support in conducting this research as part of the author’s doctoral dissertation. Additionally, the author would like to thank her colleagues and students at East Texas Baptist University for their encouragement with this project. Lastly, the author is grateful to each participant in this study and to all the nurse preceptors who continue to pour their love of the nursing profession into their students.

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