RN Preceptor
Forwards and Endorsements (3rd Edition)
Mastering Precepting (3rd Edition) - Foreword by Kathleen Sanford
This is the third edition of this wonderful book, and I think it is even better than the preceding versions. That is an especially impressive accomplishment because the first and second editions were both recipients of American Journal of Nursing Book of the Year Awards. The updated information in this version comprises an equally well written and comprehensive compendium about the art and science of precepting, with the addition of two new important and timely chapters.
Beth Ulrich and her contributing colleagues discuss the various roles of a nurse preceptor in depth while also addressing the needs of preceptees, managers, and their organizations. They focus on crucial topics such as resilience, compassion fatigue, mindfulness, Just Culture, critical thinking, and the use of instructional technologies. Their practical guidance covers all these topics to help nurses bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and the reality of practice. The newest chapters address the importance of professional identity and the role of nursing professional development practitioners in educating, developing, and supporting preceptors.
I know that this book will be of value to readers, regardless of their current and future professional career choices. The year I started my nursing career, Marlene Kramer’s book Reality Shock: Why Nurses Leave Nursing was published. Among other things, she spelled out the merits of preceptorship to mitigate the reality shock that new nurses experience. Almost 50 years later, preceptors are needed more than ever. Our profession is experiencing an unprecedented turnover rate among graduate nurses. Some of my nurse executive colleagues report that a number of these graduates indicate they will leave the profession. While we know that there are a variety of strategies we need to implement to reverse this exodus, a major tactic is to provide a better experience for our newest colleagues. That includes pairing them with experienced nurses who have been well prepared as educated preceptors.
It is widely accepted that new nurses need help to successfully navigate the change from academia to their working lives. However, they are not the only ones who will benefit from precepting. While it is essential that new graduates are paired with preceptors who welcome them into our profession, nurses who choose to pursue positions in new and different specialties could have equally enriched experiences when they have preceptors to guide them.
That’s why I am so grateful for this book. Nurses are increasingly telling leaders that they want opportunities to grow as professionals and as individuals. Very few of those who are early in their careers indicate that they will want to stay in the same job for more than a few years. I am not worried about that trend. We have always been a profession that encourages lifelong learning, and it makes intuitive sense that our colleagues may want to experience more variety in their careers. I believe that we should encourage our colleagues to pursue new adventures in nursing. We should help them do that by ensuring that they are supported by preceptors who are proficient in a variety of teaching, coaching, role-modeling, and leadership skills. This complete guide helps ensure that they will be.
Kathy Sanford, DBA, RN, FACHE, FAAN
Executive Vice President/Chief Nursing Officer
CommonSpirit Health
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Mastering Precepting (3rd Edition) - Foreword by Gwen Sherwood
The familiar adage “It takes a village” fits the process of developing each generation of nurses. Academic educators cannot alone prepare each generation of nurses capable of safe, quality practice. It requires a village of educators, role models, coaches, clinical experts, and managers, all part of the healthcare education and delivery systems working in tandem to educate for the future. The evolution of academic practice partnerships offers updated models and expectations of preceptors as a core part of academic education, integrating precepted learning as a core educational experience helping learners socialize their identity into practice.
Healthcare delivery settings are dynamic—constantly changing to match societal needs for maintaining the health of the public. Nursing is a critical universal profession existing in some form in every country, situating nurses as the largest healthcare professional group in the world. Assuring nurses are prepared to confront current work world demands largely depends on relevant workplace learning experiences best guided by skilled preceptors.
Nursing educators in both academic and clinical settings have the responsibility for designing, implementing, and evaluating workplace learning experiences to maintain a well-prepared nursing workforce. With advancing technology driving developments in treatment, managing, and documenting healthcare interventions and health promotion models, preceptors are a logical, necessary, and effective choice for guiding learners regardless of level in adapting to new settings and responsibilities.
Finding effective ways to coach, guide, mentor, and role-model learners—all part of the preceptor model—has become increasingly challenging. Preceptors have a vital role in preparing the nursing workforce during academic programs, in the transition to new employment, and anytime a nurse changes roles and responsibilities. Pre-licensure focuses on generalized practice as a nurse, yet the real world operates along population health models and specialty practice. Preceptors are an inherent aspect of helping nurses transition, whether from academia to practice or to a new area of practice.
To appreciate the complexity of the nurse preceptor role, we can turn to Benner et al. (2010), who describe nursing preparation as an apprenticeship comprised of three essential aspects:
• Acquiring and using knowledge and science
• Using clinical reasoning and skilled know-how
• Ethical comportment and formation
Developing as a nurse both at the new graduate and graduate specialty level emphasizes a multifaceted phased approach to expectations for lifelong learning across one’s nursing career. Apprenticeship enables and guides experiential learning that takes place by interacting with a community of practice. Learning in a community of practice—that is, workplace learning—situates learning within the context of a particular setting and population in which learners are coached by teachers or preceptors role modeling aspects of complex practice that are not readily attained through didactic learning. Preceptors, employees of healthcare delivery settings, are vital in that they have current experience in applying knowledge through evidence-based practice guided by clinical reasoning, applying up-to-date clinical skills working within ethical principles of fairness and justice.
A strength of this third edition of Mastering Precepting in its description of the preceptor model is its grounding in the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of precepting consistent with the apprenticeship model set forth by Benner and team. These apprenticeships provide a preceptor framework easy for faculty and clinicians to follow in capturing the essence of workplace learning. The book is a ready access guide to selecting nurses with the mindset, preparation, and skills to coach, guide, and facilitate learners based on accepted standards, assuring quality precepting. Precepting is bidirectional, with responsibilities on the part of the preceptee and their supervisor or educator, in addition to knowing the role and responsibilities of the manager and the organization.
Experience alone does not assure professional identify formation grounded in safety and quality standards of practice. Reflection on experience is an essential part of workforce development in taking the professional identity of professional nursing (Armstrong & Sherwood, 2023). Preceptors and educators work together in emphasizing reflective practice as a workplace learning strategy, guiding learners in reflecting before, in, and on action to consciously integrate social learning of the professional role.
This book is further notable for the expertise of the editor, Dr. Ulrich, an expert recognized across the profession for her research and professional advancements in workforce development. It is easy to assume that any nurse can be a preceptor, but as the chapters in this book unfold, the competencies, theoretical underpinning, and expectations reveal a robust role. Novices look up to their preceptors as key sources of professional identity formation, now emphasized in the essential competencies of the American Association of College of Nursing (2021). This book is a clarion call for investing in preceptors as a critical aspect of nursing workforce development to prepare nurses capable of delivering safe, quality care, fulfilling the workplace needs of the world’s largest healthcare workforce.
Gwen Sherwood, PhD, RN, FAAN, ANEF
Professor Emeritus
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
References
American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (2021). The essentials: Core competencies for professional nursing
education. Author.
Armstrong, G., and Sherwood, G. (2023). Reflective learning: Recalibrating collaboration and evaluation for safety and
quality competencies. In S. Horton-Deutsch and G. Sherwood (Eds.), Reflective practice: Reimaging ourselves, reimaging
nursing (3rd ed.). Sigma Theta Tau International.
Benner, P., Sutphen, M., Leonard, V., & Day, L. (2010). Educating nurses: A call for radical transformation. Jossey-Bass.
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Mastering Precepting (3rd Edition) - Reviews
“In this third edition of Mastering Precepting, Ulrich and the contributing authors provide an up-to-date, comprehensive, well-organized, and easy-to-use resource for any nurse who wants to make a positive impact by serving as a preceptor. The practical tips and strategies in the book cover a wide range of topics, from communication and mentoring to evaluation and feedback, and guide how to navigate common challenges and issues that arise in the preceptor-preceptee relationship. In addition, there is new content for nursing professional development practitioners and on professional identity. Overall, this book is an essential, practical tool for any nurse who wants to be a successful preceptor.”
David Marshall, JD, DNP, RN, CENP, NEA-BC, FAONL, FAAN
Senior Vice President & Chief Nursing Executive
James R. Klinenberg, MD, and Lynn Klinenberg Linkin Chair in Nursing in honor of Linda Burnes Bolton
Cedars-Sinai, Los Angeles
“Mastering Precepting, Third Edition, is masterful in providing both theoretical and practical guidance for beginning and experienced preceptors. I especially learned from excellent short case studies throughout the book that illustrate challenging situations in precepting along with a strengths-based approach to precepting. This book highlights and supports the vital role of preceptors in improving the quality and safety of healthcare. It is a must-read resource for every preceptor, who will find sage coaching and insights in each chapter. Dr. Beth Ulrich and her collaborators provide cutting-edge thinking about experiential clinical learning that all nurse educators in all settings will find enlightening, useful, and inspiring.”
Patricia Benner, PhD, RN, FAAN
Executive Director, EducatingNurses.com
Faculty Development Office, NovEx, Novice to Expert Learning System
Professor Emerita, School of Nursing, Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences
University of California, San Francisco
“Preceptors are the heart of the matter, as they play a critical role in successfully transitioning newly hired individuals, newly licensed professionals, and individuals transitioning from one position or specialty to another. More than ever, nursing and its partners and collaborators from various disciplines must recognize the value of preceptors in fostering a culture of safety and in achieving a sustainable nursing workforce. The third edition of Mastering Precepting has it all and is a must-read for anyone aspiring to become a preceptor and for those committed to elevating nursing practice and fostering a culture of professional excellence for better organizational outcomes.”
Warly Remegio, DNP, RN, NEA-BC, NPD-BC, FNYAM
Vice President, Nursing Professional Development & Practice Excellence, Hartford HealthCare
“In today’s turbulent healthcare environment, preceptors play a crucial role in the successful professional transition of nurses. The nurse tenure in acute care settings has dropped over the past three years, and many of today’s preceptors are new to their roles. Precepting is both an art and a science. This new edition of Mastering Precepting provides an evidence-based road map for preceptor development and strategies to avoid preceptor burnout.”
Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN
Professor Emeritus, Florida Atlantic University, Editor-in-Chief, Nurse Leader
“Precepting the new graduate or the experienced nurse has never been more important than in today’s healthcare environment. Beth Ulrich provides strategies, concepts, roles, and tools for nurses learning the foundation of precepting and those looking for new content such as professional identity development and the role of nursing professional development practitioners. This essential book fills the gaps in knowledge for all nurse preceptors.”
Tamara Kear, PhD, RN, CNN, FAAN
System Vice President Professional Practice, Nursing Research & EBP, CommonSpirit Health
“This book is brilliant, relevant, and a must-have resource for all preceptors and those supporting the lifelong learning journey of preceptors. This edition provides updated strategies for all preceptors and the ability to develop meaningful action plans to enhance the learning journeys. Bravo!”
Sylvain Trepanier, DNP, RN, CENP, FAONL, FAAN
SVP, Chief Nursing Officer, Providence, Renton Washington
“Dr. Ulrich and her contributing authors have created a timely, thoughtful, instructive, and inspiring contemporary work. Perhaps today more than ever, teaching the next generation of nurses and healthcare students and learning to help our current practicing colleagues to transition specialties, settings, and roles is not just fundamental but critical to the future. This practical guide to precepting defines both the art and science of shaping practice, education, and research and is core to building and transferring our professional identity as nurses.”
Cole Edmonson, DNP, RN, FACHE, NEA-BC, FAAN, FAONL, FNAP
Chief Clinical Officer, AMN Healthcare
“Once we expected faculty to monitor students, for new graduates to ‘figure it out,’ and for a nurse with any experience to transition anywhere needed. Then, as we focused on safety and quality, we realized all those individuals needed support of some kind to acquire the new expected competencies of the role in that setting. Once again, that is what Dr. Ulrich and her colleagues have done in the third edition of Mastering Precepting, with just the right balance of theory and practicality to make this a most useful book.”
Patricia S. Yoder-Wise, EdD, RN, NEA-BC, ANEF, FAONL, FAAN
Professor and Dean Emerita, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center
Co-Founder and Vice President, the Nurses Legacy Institute;
Editor-in-Chief, The Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing
“Precepting is a critical role for the registered nurse developing personal mastery, while guiding the transition and socialization of an early career nurse or nurse moving into a new specialty. As professionals, being transferors of knowledge and developing our nursing colleagues is inherent in our role. Beth Ulrich has produced a book filled with both foundational concepts and practical processes and tips. This work is a significant contribution to the body of nursing literature, a must-read for anyone building or improving a preceptor development program, and an essential addition to every nurses’ library.”
Gay L. Landstrom, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, FAONL
SVP and Chief Nursing Officer, Trinity Health
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