A systematic review: Clinical education and preceptorship during nurse practitioner role transition.

BACKGROUND: The demand for nurse practitioners (NP) is growing; however, the NP role transition is difficult. NP role transition starts with NP student entering the program and can last for as long as two years post-graduation. NP clinical education and preceptorship model is outdated and is in need of restructuring. PURPOSE: The purpose of this literature review was to describe and explain the issues and resources within the NP clinical education and preceptorship that is used to support NPs' role transition both before and after graduation. METHODS: The search years included 2010-2022. The following search terms were used: graduate nurse, advanced nursing, nurse practitioner, APRN, masters prepared, advanced nurse, nursing student, practicum, residency programs, residencies, school, program, clinical, clinical education, nursing education, health education, training, clinical site, student, preceptor, preceptorship, apprenticeship, mentor, mentorship, transition, role transition, role change, nurse's role, primary care, qualitative research, collaboration, and clinical competence. RESULTS: In this review pre-graduation persistent issues with availability of clinical sites and preceptors as well as lack of consistency in competency based clinical education assessment practices were identified. Difficult transition to practice post-graduation showed inconsistent and limited support available to further develop the newly graduated entry level NPs' clinical skills. CONCLUSION: Restructuring the old clinical education and preceptorship model used during the pre-graduation NP role transition stage is necessary to improve NP role transition process and graduate the required number of practice ready NPs.

Advancing nursing students' transition to scholarship: embedding a librarian into the Advanced Nursing Research course.

Background: Nursing students often prioritize learning clinical skills rather than research skills, possibly inhibiting their growth as scholars. Supporting nursing students' learning of information literacy skills has been shown to impact nurses' involvement with research after graduation. This suggests a need for developing innovative information literacy teaching strategies that can enable nursing students to better understand the process of research and how to apply research to practice. Case Presentation: This article describes the implementation of the embedded librarian project at the course level at the University of Memphis. A librarian was integrated into the Advanced Nursing Research course, a semester-long course for graduate nursing students, for the fall 2020 semester. This case shares the embedded librarian project's implementation and evaluation strategies. Conclusions: The embedded librarian project aided students' acquisition of information literacy skills at the University of Memphis. Students reported that the embedded librarian project helped them complete assignments for their research course. Using an embedded librarian service within the graduate nursing curricula model may enhance scholarship among future nurses.

Cognitive preceptorship: An emerging nurse practitioner role transition to practice model.

BACKGROUND: Transition to practice is difficult for nurse practitioners (NP) pre and post-graduation. At the core of NPs' successful transition to practice is clinical education. There is a lack of theoretical knowledge to guide NPs' transition to practice through preceptorship. The current academic clinical education model and onboarding process in clinical settings require restructuring. Preceptorship is the most important element of NPs' transition to practice; it is in need of restructuring. There is a need for evidence to guide the restructuring of pre and post-graduation NP preceptorship. AIM: This paper aims to provide a description and application of the Cognitive Preceptorship Model to the nurse practitioner role transition process. METHOD: An extensive literature review of NPs' preceptorship during role transition was conducted and the Cognitive Preceptorship Model (CPM) derived from the literature review of other theories and models: the Schlossberg's Transition Theory; Collin's et al. Cognitive Apprenticeship Model;. and Barnes's NP transition attributes. The CPM model's concepts and application to practice are described; included is a description of preceptorship, CPM model origination, as well as CPM model concepts and application. CONCLUSION: The CPM model's concepts guide the specific application of the preceptorship process to both NP students and novice NPs' transition to practice pre and post-graduation.