Development and testing of a tool to measure the supportive role of nursing preceptors

[摘要] English: South Africa needs competent nursing practitioners who are able to apply their minds in order to meet the high patient care demands. Nurse educators must support nursing students, our future nurse practitioners, in the clinical facility because they experience various unfamiliar and even traumatic situations. Effective system, tangible, cognitive and emotional support offered by preceptors enable students to transfer their classroom learning into practice and become competent nurse practitioners who are able to think critically, reason clinically and demonstrate sound clinical judgment. For effective precepting to take place, preceptors should consider a number of factors such as the student characteristics, educational outcomes, transfer climate as well as the physical environment and adapt their precepting style and technique according to the circumstances and students' learning needs. At present, there is no measurement instrument to evaluate the all four types of support that preceptors offer to students in the clinical practice.A quantitative methodological study was done to standardise the newly developed instrument by determining its reliability and validity. Forty-two existing questionnaires on student support by preceptors were accessed and analysed. Consequently, sixty-nine relevant items were included in a draft questionnaire. Face and content validity were enhanced before testing the draft questionnaire. One hundred and ninety-two nursing students in an undergraduate programme were asked to evaluate their preceptors over two consecutive months. Reliability was determined by Cronbach's alpha test and validity was determined by an exploratory factor analysis.A 0.98 Cronbach alpha value indicates a high reliability. The factor analysis identified three factors, namely system, cognitive and emotional support. Twenty-four items were evaluated by comparing cut-off values of >_ 0.4 and >_0.5. Twelve items were eliminated based on the cut-off values, leaving fifty-seven items to be included in the final questionnaire. Students need support to develop their thinking operations and to transfer classroom learning to clinical practice. The value of this research is that the developed tool provides an assessment or diagnostic instrument to determine the quality of precepting as experienced by nursing students. Lack of competence in a specific facet or domain may be diagnosed and training should be offered in order to improve the quality of precepting.It is recommended that further research, such as a confirmatory factor analysis, be executed in order to confirm the value of the tool in assessing and diagnosing the quality of preceptorship in South Africa.

[发布机构] University of the Free State