Preceptorship and Continuing Professional Development

Preceptorship

Department of Health guidance on preceptorship positions service users and carers as recipients of high quality nursing care, but is silent on their role in contributing to this stage of learning and development. However,

• staff in the Workforce Development team at Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust have introduced ‘simulated patients’ into their preceptorship programme and informally report such significant benefits that they have widened the approach to include their return to work programme and the development of non-clinical staff.
• Portsmouth Hospitals invite previous patients to come and talk to the preceptees as part of the programme to learn about a patient’s perspective. The preceptees are multi professional new registrants and include nurses, midwives, children’s nurses, theatre practitioners, occupational therapists, physiotherapists and dieticians.

Continuing Professional Development

Beyond preceptorship, nurses engage in continuing professional development (CPD). When their CPD activities bring them back into contact with a higher educational institution, then these resource pages apply to them again. At other times, when they pursue personal study, professional practice development or non-accredited learning, then the responsibility for coproducing this learning with service users and carers falls to their employer and outside the scope of these guidance materials. However, staff responsible for preceptorship and continuing professional development in its widest sense may wish to take account of the values and innovations demonstrated on these pages.