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Tips from TSE: Real ways to reward your preceptors

Staff Development Weekly: Insight on Evidence-Based Practice in Education, August 14, 2008

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As one of the first relationships formed by your new staff members, the nurse-preceptor bond can make or break the success of employment. Having the right people in the preceptor role is crucial to job satisfaction, retention, and preparing your new nurses for the job.

"With the nursing shortage, educators will increasingly be using preceptors, and we want to make rewards that are important to them," says Connie J. Rowles, DSN, CNAA, BC, clinical associate professor at the Indiana University School of Nursing in Indianapolis.

Preceptor rewards that Rowles has found to be effective include:

• Writing thank-you notes. "The biggest thing people can do is recognize people with something as simple as a thank-you note," says Rowles. "Those little things mean a lot to people."
• Providing active learning in training. When teaching and training preceptors, make it interactive and engaging, says Rowles. "Make sure they're not listening to a talking head at the front of the room," she says. This helps them recognize your desire to keep them absorbed and well-prepared for the role.
• Presenting preferred scheduling. Offering preceptors priority when choosing shift slots may serve as an effective incentive and reward for doing well.

Editor's note: This excerpt was taken from the August issue of The Staff Educator. Discover all the benefits of subscribing to The Staff Educator!

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