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The Nurse Preceptor Toolkit

Preparing Nurses and Advanced Practice Nurses for Clinical Practice

  • 1st Edition - June 25, 2024
  • Latest edition
  • Authors: Beth Heuer, Cynthia A. Danford
  • Language: English

Develop the skills necessary for precepting RN and APRN students and new orientees! The Nurse Preceptor Toolkit is written by and for RN and APRN clinicians and faculty members… Read more

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Description

Develop the skills necessary for precepting RN and APRN students and new orientees! The Nurse Preceptor Toolkit is written by and for RN and APRN clinicians and faculty members from a variety of levels, specialties, and settings. Using real-life examples and practical tips, this comprehensive resource answers the questions preceptors often ask when interacting with students of all levels, as well as new orientees. Within its pages, you’ll find everything you need to develop and solidify the clinical teaching skills essential to becoming an effective preceptor.

Key features

  • This completely new book serves as a comprehensive resource for precepting both RN and APRN students and new orientees
  • Coverage addresses questions preceptors have asked when interacting with students of all levels, as well as with new orientees
  • Content is written by and for RN and APRN clinicians and faculty members from a variety of levels, specialties, and settings
  • Real-life examples and practical tips guide the development and solidification of the clinical teaching skills needed to become an effective preceptor
  • Coverage of essential precepting topics includes effective communication, flexibility, time management skills, providing feedback and support, an understanding of different adult learning styles, and the ability to confidently evaluate student knowledge and competencies
  • Chapter objectives serve as “advance organizers” to help prepare you for the content that follows
  • Exemplars model excellence in clinical precepting through contributor-authored stories of successful faculty-preceptor-learner partnerships related to the content of each chapter
  • Boxes highlight tips from successful preceptors
  • Appendices provide ready-to-use tools to enhance the preceptor-learner experience

Table of contents

PART I Setting the Stage

1. Introduction to Precepting

PART II Defining the Preceptor

2. Starting With the Basics

3. Why Precept?

4. Coaching and Mentoring

PART III Framing the Precepting Experience

5. Understanding the Learner and the Learning Process

6. Fostering Effective Preceptor-Learner Communication

7. The Learning Curve: A Parallel Venture for Preceptors and Learners

PART IV Clinical Judgment Skills and Precepting Models

8. Special Precepting Tools for Clinical Judgment

PART V Tools for Precepting

9. Expectations: Preceptors, Faculty, and Academic Programs

10. Providing a Well-Rounded Clinical Experience

11. Special Considerations When Precepting Nurse Practitioner Students

12. Precepting the Undergraduate and Graduate-Entry Nursing Student

13. Onboarding the New Nurse

14. Orienting the Advanced Practice Registered Nurse Student

15. Guiding the Nurse Practitioner Student Experience

16. Professional Development for the Preceptor and the Orientee

17. Managing Challenging Behaviors With Learners in Clinical Environments

18. Self-Care for the Busy Preceptor

19. Managing Barriers in the APRN Clinical Site

20. Documentation

21. Evaluation

22. Moving Into Leadership Roles Beyond Practice

23. Precepting in Global Health Experiences

24. Precepting in Specialty Settings

25. Bringing Closure to the Precepting Experience

Appendix
A: Mentoring Contract Example (Chapter 4)
B: Checklist for Beginning the Precepting Experience
C: Competency Sign-off Checklist for Nurse Orientees
D: Developing a Philosophy of Clinical Education Statement for APRN Students (Chapter 3)
E: Site-Specific APRN Clinical Experience Checklist (Chapters 10 and 15)
F: APRN Student Welcome Poster for Clinical Site (Chapter 14)
G: How to Be an Amazing APRN Student in Any Clinical Site (Chapter 15)
H: Examples of Reflective Journaling (Chapter 8)
I: Example of Journaling Rubric (Chapter 8)
J: One-Minute Preceptor Exemplars (Chapter 8)
K: Sample Letter From Preceptor to Faculty Regarding Nurse Practitioner Student Concerns (Chapter 17)
L: Sample Learning Plan Addressing APRN Student Concerns
M: Student Learning Profile
N: Examples of Nurse Practitioner Student Learning Needs and Clinical Objectives (Chapter 9)
O: NONPF/AANP Preceptor Expectation Checklist: Faculty Expectations of Preceptors (Chapter 9)
P: NONPF/AANP Preceptor Expectation Checklist: Preceptor Expectations of Faculty (Chapter 9)
Q: Preceptor Agreement Form Template: Example
R: Preceptors’ Orientation Competence Instrument (POCI)
S: Orientation Topics for School Nurses
T: APRN Student Competency Evaluation Using the PRIME Model
U: Human Trafficking Resources, Referrals, and Responses to Guide Patient Care (Chapter 24)
V: Johns Hopkins Nursing Evidence-Based Practice Question Development Tool

Review quotes

“The purpose of this book is to guide new preceptors, students, and faculty on best practices of precepting. It defines preceptorship and guides new preceptors in their roles… [and] “…discusses student, faculty, and preceptor expectations and roles. [It] meets its objectives by providing examples and cases of precepting best practices…. a useful tool for nursing students, preceptors, and faculty because it discusses role expectations to enhance the precepting experience…. [It] examines all facets of precepting, including learning theories, communication, and how to best assess students’ critical thinking… It presents innovative ideas to optimize the precepting experience.” ©Doody's Review Service, 2025, Sylvie Rosenbloom, DNP, APRN, FNP-BC, CDCES (Mercy College) Doody's Score: 96, 4 Stars!

Product details

  • Edition: 1
  • Latest edition
  • Published: September 20, 2024
  • Language: English

About the authors

BH

Beth Heuer

Dr. Heuer is a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner (PNP) and Associate Professor of Clinical Instruction at Temple University College of Public Health/School of Nursing, Philadelphia, PA. She has extensive experience in neurology and developmental behavioral pediatrics. She received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Pittsburgh and her Doctor of Nursing Practice degree at Robert Morris University. She has 36 years of pediatric nursing experience and has been a PNP for more than 22 years. She has given presentations on pediatric health issues at the local, state, and national levels. She has authored and co-authored several book chapters as well as peer-reviewed journal publications and consumer publications. She is the recipient of the Association of Faculties of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (AFPNP) 2019 Outstanding Preceptor Award. She is former National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (NAPNAP) Executive Board secretary and is a past president of the Three Rivers Chapter of NAPNAP, and former chairperson for NAPNAP’s Professional Issues Committee.
Affiliations and expertise
Clinical Professor Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, USA

CD

Cynthia A. Danford

Dr. Danford is a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner (PNP) who has extensive experience in pediatric primary care and family nursing. She is currently a Nurse Scientist II at Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio and an Assistant Professor at University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA. She has worked in academia and practiced as a certified PNP for more than 30 years. She has taught at graduate and undergraduate nursing levels and worked with supporting preceptors for more than 20 years. Dr. Danford earned a PhD from the University of California, San Francisco, an MSN from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, and a BS from St. Mary’s College, Notre Dame. She currently serves as co-chair of the International Family Nursing Association (IFNA) Research Committee and is the Association of Faculties of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (AFPNP) liaison to the Research Committee of the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (NAPNAP). She is past president of AFPNP and past chair of the IFNA research collaboration subcommittee. She was selected as a Top 25 pediatric nursing professor in 2014 and received the AFPNP Excellence in Nursing Research Award in 2012 & 2019. She conducts research with families with young children in an effort to instill healthy lifestyle habits and minimize obesity and cardiovascular risk. She has presented her research locally, nationally, and internationally (Spain, Denmark, Japan, Canada, Russia, Ireland) and authored and co-authored several peer-reviewed journal publications. She has received funding for her innovative research with event history calendars, most recently from the National Institute of Child Health and Development (NICHD), National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Affiliations and expertise
Nurse Scientist II, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio; Assistant Professor, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA