One preceptor program offered by the Benner Institute for Teaching & Learning fortifies the goal of clinical education and teaches preceptors to precept for the purposes of clinical education. The goal of clinical education is to move learners from seeing the clinical world as being elemental, partial, and dominated by tasks and procedures to engaging with the clinical world, as a nurse, to see meaningful clinical patterns and an increased understanding the whole patient, family, or community situation (Benner, Tanner & Chesla, 2009). The purpose of clinical education is to

• Develop a perceptual grasp (seeing and noticing), a sense of salience, clinical reasoning and judgment, and clinical imagination in particular clinical situations;
• Understand the notions of the good internal to the practice of nursing (i.e., the American Nurse Association Code of Ethics) to develop advocacy skills for individual, family, community, and/or social good (e.g., equity, among others);
• Respect humanity and give social space to develop skills of involvement and relationship building (diversity, inclusion, belonging);
• Develop a reflective, self-improving practice (i.e., learning from the situation, other professionals, from mistakes, failures; and guarding against bias); and
• Develop competence in the nine clinical work role competencies (HealthImpact, n.d.).

The nine clinical work role competencies were modified to encompass all types of clinical nursing practice from clinical work role competencies in acute and critical care across the lifespan that were inductively identified through research by Benner, Hooper Kyriakidis, and Stannard (2011). The nine clinical work role competencies can be found below. The nine clinical work role competencies are one way to define the practice of direct care nursing. By clearly articulating the purpose of clinical education with preceptors, the preceptors are better able to use appropriate andragogies such as, but not limited to, situated coaching, briefing, appreciative inquiry, role modeling, debriefing, and role playing to support the development of perceptual grasp, a sense of salience, clinical reasoning and judgement, clinical imagination, advocacy skills, skills of involvement, a self-improving practice, and the nine clinical work role competencies.

Nine Clinical Work Role Competencies

• The skilled know-how of managing a crisis.
• Diagnosing and managing clinical conditions.
• Caring about patients, families, communities, and self.
• Providing comfort measures for patients, families, and communities.
• Preventing hazards in a technological environment.
• Decision making and caring in advanced illness, loss, and end-of-life.
• Making the case: communicating clinical assessments and improving teamwork.
• Patient safety: Monitoring quality, preventing, and managing breakdown.
• The skilled know-how of clinical and moral leadership and the coaching and mentoring of others.

Course Highlights

• 20 Continuing Education hours.
• Meets the 1-hour CA-BRN requirement for implicit bias training.
• 4 Synchronous Virtual Zoom Sessions
• Each Zoom session is 4-hours
• Enrolled in online Canvas™ learning classroom

Are you currently practicing bedside RN in California, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii or the Pacific Island Territories? You are invited to enroll for FREE in the Nurse Preceptor Course. We offer both virtual and in-person intensives! Reach out to WUFAR9@westernu.edu for more information and to sign up!

References

Benner, P., Sutphen, M., Leonard, V., & Day, L. (2010). Educating nurses – a call for radical transformation. Jossey-Bass.

Benner, P., Hooper Kyriakidis, P., & Stannard, D. (2011). Clinical wisdom and interventions in acute and critical care: a thinking in action approach. Springer.