Professional Experience Placement

A recent publication of about student centredness in clinical learning informs the discourse about models of clinical education or professional experience. The authors distinguish between preceptorship and mentorship. They state preceptors have a short term relationship with students, whereas a mentor relationship is longer term and the emphasis tends to be professional development and career progression. Preceptors are important because they focus on orientation and socialisation and aiding students to become part of a nursing team. There is also the acknowledgement that preceptors facilitate students by ‘guiding from the side’.

The importance of this study is that it is a longitudinal study that collected data from a representative sample of students from one Australian university that used three models of clinical learning. The methodology enabled the authors to discern that continuity of clinical supervisor as a significant attribute for effective student learning. Furthermore, the results indicated students that undertook their professional experience placement within one healthcare organisation (although may attend one of 5 hosital campuses)  in a clinical preceptorship parternship model responded more positively than students who had both a clinical teacher and preceptor in a non-parternship model.

The authors stated that student centredness is integral to promoting a positive learning environment. The findings indicated that effective learning requires a stable reference point within the environment. This attribute can be  provided by the presence of a preceptor and/or clinical teacher. These findings imply that educational and organisational strategies need to be developed to sustain a student centred approach to learning in clinical practice.

Do you have views about whether you think it is a good idea that students undertake their experiential practicum within one healthcare organisation or whether they need to be exposed to a variety of health care organisations? Is it important for student learning to be guided by a variety of  clinical supervisors? Any comments about this topic can be posted here.