The Preceptor Model of Clinical Instruction: The Lived Experiences of Students, Preceptors, and Faculty-of-Record

Abstract

The preceptor model of clinical instruction will become increasingly popular due to the cost of undergraduate education, the scholarly demands of research and teaching, and an interest in developing new partnerships among students, clinicians, and teachers. It is quite timely, therefore, that nurse researchers reveal the nature and utility of this instructional model prior to its widespread use. To that end, hermeneutic interviews (N = 31) were conducted with senior-level undergraduate nursing students (n = 10), staff nurse preceptors (n = 11), and master's and PhD-prepared faculty-of-record (n = 10). Employing interpretive phenomenology, the authors identified common meanings, relational themes, and a constitutive pattern designated learning nursing thinking. An examination of this pattern and its associated themes may help identify those teaching practices that should be extended and those that should be altered.