A clinical preceptorship is a structured period in the early career of a healthcare professional, where they are paired with an experienced clinician – called a preceptor – for a period of on-the-job training and coaching in a real world environment. Whilst preceptorships are not always required, many roles do ask for one from newly-qualified or returning practitioners. So what does it entail exactly?
This article will look at the day-to-day experience of a preceptorship, the various ways of organizing and starting one, what the timeframe is for completion, and why it is important and beneficial for an inexperienced practitioners career. All with the aim of giving you a broad overview of what stepping into this intensive but rewarding period of hybrid education and work will look like.
A Preceptorship Explained in Plain Terms
A preceptorship is somewhat like a bridge between medical study and academia and real-world clinical healthcare work. It does not replace training or medical school placements. In fact, it isn’t necessary for every kind of clinical practitioner in all cases. But for those who have been in academia for several years after completing medical school, or only had a short placement during their studies, preceptorships are not only important but sometimes required by employees.
If you’re not sure how to begin this often vitally important part of a clinical practitioner’s early career, consider letting a trusted third party with experience organizing clinical preceptorship do the leg work for you. Meaning you can focus on your studies delivering excellent patient care, rather than the admin of finding a preceptorship role.
The key goal of a preceptorship is to help integrate new practitioners into a full working team while also allowing time for one-on-one mentorship and guidance. Real world settings are complicated and messy, and a preceptorship helps newly-qualified medical practitioners ease in the working environment in a more supportive structure.
Timelines and Time Scales – How Long Will it Last?
Most preceptorships last between six to 12 months, depending on the healthcare organization. Some can be faster than that, especially in less intensive roles, but the shortest you’ll find will be six weeks to three months. The exact timeframe can also vary upon the needs, skills and experience of the individual. For example a doctor with clinical experience who has taken a break from the field for a while may need less time to get up to speed than a newly-qualified nurse fresh out of medical school.
During that time period, new staff gradually move from supervised practice most of the time to independent operation (as part of a team). There are no additional formal assessments to pass or written work to complete, outside of the requirements of the normal job role.
What a Preceptorship Involves – The Key Components
The main element of a preceptorship is working one-to-one with a more experienced, sometimes a senior, practitioner. This usually takes up one to three months of the standard six to 12 months.
This supervised clinical practice allows new staff time to learn all the job requires outside of medical knowledge and technical skills, such as communication, patient safety procedures and prioritization of work in an intense environment. Although many things are standardized across healthcare practices, some organizations do things differently to others – so a preceptorship gives time to learn the particulars of their often safety-critical role, while they concentrate on good clinical practice.
Preceptorships can also be great for long-term career advancement, networking and professional development. One-to-one sessions with a highly experienced or even senior person in the organization you’re working for can be invaluable when considering career advancement opportunities, especially for people looking to move into the highest paid roles in the medical field that aren’t specialized doctors.
Practice Makes Perfect, as Preceptorships Increase Job Retention and Satisfaction
Systematic reviews and meta studies (studies of the results of other studies) have proven that preceptorships are effective at boosting clinical outcomes for patients and job satisfaction and retention among healthcare staff.
According to one study in the American Journal of Nursing, preceptorship programs can lead to huge increases in job retention for nurses of up to 37% compared to going without. Another study of one US hospital network showed reported clinical errors from new nurses in their first six months on the job dropped 50% after a preceptorship program was introduced. This shows the clear impact preceptorship programs have.
Aside from clinical outcomes and efficacy, preceptorships have been proven to improve job satisfaction, morale and confidence among the staff who learn on the job. The first few months for a new clinician in medical practice can be highly stressful. So by offloading some of the specifics of the role to be learned under a preceptor’s tutelage, new staff can learn in a less high pressured environment with less stress and more support. This can translate over to the rest of the workforce, creating a better working environment for everyone in a healthcare team.
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