Preceptorship in psychiatric nursing : an impact evaluation from an Australian perspective

The importance of preceptorship in ensuring positive clinical experiencesfor undergraduates has been widely acknowledged in the literature. This isparticularly the case for mental health nursing due to the negative attitudes nursingstudents tend to hold towards this area of practice. The Centre for Psychiatric NursingResearch and Practice (CPNRP), introduced a subject: Preceptorship in PsychiatricNursing, to facilitate the ability of clinicians to undertake the preceptorship roleconfidently and competently. This paper presents the findings from an evaluation ofthe impact of this subject on positive changes to practice in relation to preceptorshipwithin the workplace setting. Participants from both the on-campus subject(n = 23) and a workshop conducted in rural Victoria (n = 5) took part in this qualitativestudy. The findings suggest that the subject has had a positive impact on thepractice of preceptorship within the workplace. The impact at an organisationallevel was found to be higher amongst the rural participants. This is assumed to bea result of the fact that the rural participants were employed within the one serviceand used the workshop as an opportunity to address organisational issues.