udy were that student fears centered around themes of: a lack of confidence and support, and lack of preparation in training for adequate competence. Thus the problem is identified as student fears related to the transition from student to nurse. These fears are operationally defined as fear of low confidence in ability levels and fear of low competence levels. The preceptorship program can help alleviate these fears and ease the transition process.
Thus nursing education is faced with the challenge of preparing graduates to be adept at coping with a growing body of nursing knowledge, rapid advances in science and technology, and economic constraints of healthcare, and it is also faced with the challenge of preparing students for the transition into nursing (Angel, Duffey, & Belyea, 2000; Whitehead, 2001). The effective integration of new nursing staff into the healthcare system remains a challenge. Preceptorships provide an opportunity for the successful integration of nurses into their new roles, by allowing for the new nurse to be guided by a mentor while learning from experience (Myrick, 2002; Westra & Graziano, 1992). The following sections present the preceptorship intervention, adult learning theory as a theoretical framework to explain the value of experiential learning, intervention implementation, and intervention evaluation.
Preceptor is defined as a staff nurse, who provides teaching, counseling, support, and inspiration while serving as a role model to a new nurse. This helps the new nurse to grow and develop and become socialized into their new role. Thus preseptorship is a program in which trained staff nurses facilitate the transition, socialization, and development of new nurses with regard to the responsibilities of the new role of staff nurse (Alspach, 1995; Westra & Graziano, 1992). Preceptorship programs have been shown to result in role socialization, role independence, role competence, greater con...