What are the structural conditions of importance to preceptors' performance?

Abstract

Preceptors play a critical role in the process of developing nursing students' knowledge, skills and ability to make independent and critical judgments, however relatively little is known about what aspects are associated with nurses' performance as preceptors. To investigate structural conditions and professional aspects of potential importance to nurses' perceptions of their performance as preceptors, and to evaluate the validity and reliability of a questionnaire measuring nurses' perceptions of being a preceptor. The study had a correlational design. Total population sampling (N=1720) in a county council district in central Sweden was used to screen for nurses with recent preceptor experience, 933 nurses responded (response rate 54%), of those 323 nurses fulfilled the inclusion criteria. The present findings are based on data from 243 of these subjects. Data were collected with a questionnaire and analyzed using multiple regressions analyses, exploratory factor analyses and reliability coefficients. The results show that aspects such as receiving feedback on the function as a preceptor, being able to plan and prepare the clinical education period, receiving support from unit managers and having specific supervision education explain 31% of nurses' overall view of their performance as preceptors. However, structural conditions and professional experiences could not explain preceptors' use of reflection and critical thinking when acting as preceptors. These findings are discussed within the framework of Kanter's structural theory of power in organizations. Further, the psychometric evaluation showed that the questionnaire is a valid and reliable instrument for measuring nurses' structural conditions for and perceptions of their performance as preceptors. Structural conditions such as feedback and support seemed to strengthen nurses' general view of their performance as preceptors but did not seem to facilitate nurses' work toward the aim of higher education and helping nursing students develop critical thinking.