Experience of nursing preceptors in supporting nursing students who have experienced their first patient death
Death is not a pleasant experience especially the death of a patient for a medical professional who is just beginning (Mallory & Allen, 2006). Many nurses have been seen to have a difficult time dealing with death. Historically, extensive study on how to take care of the dying has not been fully implemented in educating nurses. As such, nurses tend to bear a negative experience toward death of a patient.
Human beings tend to cope with death using a superstitious approach rather than an approach of honest open inquiry. As a result, death remains a topic categorized under taboos in many cultures. Many medical personnel have been found to face the natural phases of birth, aging as well as death while they are hardly prepared (Spaulding et al,web). Consequently, those who happen to adapt quickly tend to continue with their work while those who have not adapted are more prone to quit their jobs regardless of the period of time they have spent in their career. To this effect, it is safe to say that it is important to train nurses and medical personnel on how to deal with death experiences in their careers.
Preceptorship happens to be one of the approaches used to educate nurses on death. A Preceptor can also be termed as a teacher (Rippy & Baker, 2003) .It has been known since the 15th century in England. Preceptorship can be defined as the knowledge transfer from an expert in a particular field, (in this case nursing), to a new nurse. Preceptors are expected to not simply know the material they are transferring but to understand it fully.
Preceptorship is an element which is important for a nurse. It should be under a preceptor’s guidance who is a first level clinician and who has at least a year of experience in the clinic area. The preceptorship programme is important in that it helps newly qualified staff to consolidate their course content as well as helps them to translate the theoretical knowledge they have gathered into practice (Jones,2006).The preceptorship programme usually comprises of three components. First; orientation of the new nurse to the clinical area. Second; support as well as supervision in the clinical area and finally further development of the new nurses skills that have been acquired.
Orientation of clinical area
It is customary that upon entrance to a given organization, new employees are bound to undergo a period of induction or otherwise known as orientation. The duration it takes is relative to the nature as well as the size and complexity of the organization (Victoria, 2003). The nurse is introduced to the organization’s structure, function, values, aims, philosophy and mission. Orientation also ensures that the new nurse is introduced to the organization’s expectations as well as standards for performance and behaviour. The orientation also provides the opportunity for performing pre-program surveys that are used to evaluate the program outcomes. Consequently, needs assessment is undertaken with individual participants and used in developing their individual goals and objectives as well as individual transition support plan.
Studies have been conducted and have shown that preceptorship and orientation are approaches to solve the stressful transition of nurses. Further still, research on nursing has shown that newly graduated nurses experience potential job stresses which may in part include lack of confidence, role conflict, lack of support and value conflict (Hsiung & Chiu, 2009). A study carried out in two teaching hospitals and ten public hospitals in Taiwan Taipei was carried out whereby three hundred questionnaires were distributed to new nurses in the health facilities. 214 forms were evaluated for the research and it was found out that preceptorship and job standardization were the least job stressors for the new nurses. Despite these positive attributes of this approach, there are rather limitations to the same as the orientation time may be too short for the new nurses and some nurses may find it tedious to follow a routine job standardization procedure. Job standardization helped to decrease the graduate nurse’s job stress and reduced their likelihood of quitting. However, there was a loop hole in the study as it was the findings made it difficult to capture the time effects.
Support and Supervision at the clinical area
Supervision is also another effective mode of improving healthcare. The role of the supervisor is both interesting and challenging. With the dynamic nature off the job, the supervisor should ensure that there is a balance between management and mentoring new medical personnel. Effective supervision is observed to possess some key qualities which include; good listening, supportive nature, and able to provide constructive critism to the new nurse. These attributes are more so important especially when the nurse is experiencing his/her first death as it helps the nurse to be encouraged and maintain a positive attitude (HST, 1998). Supervising also has some weakness in that if administered poorly, it may lead to staff resentment and low job satisfaction for the new employees. It also leads to staff feeling unsupported and isolated.
Development of nurse’s skills
The third step of preceptorship involves developing the nurse’s skills. Once the nurse is well oriented and supervised in a clear and professional manner then their skills are developed so that they can better serve their duties with confident and better yet act as [receptors to the next generation of new nurses. This aspect causes job satisfaction and a good relationship between the preceptor and the new nurse. The nurse having being knowledgeable of the institutions expectations and having worked under supervision of a good mentor can now be confident in his/her individual potential and can even think of improving their skills with further education.
Conclusion
Initial work as a nurse can be stressful in the beginning, however, preceptorship has helped to change all that. Nurses are oriented, supervised and helped to acquire new skills. This has helped to improve the health sector and in addition, helped nurses to cope with the grief of death of patients. There are challenges however that have been recognized in the three steps. However, it does not mean that they cannot be solved gradually with time. All in all, preceptorship remains an effective tool in health care enhancement and nurse retention.
References
Hsiung Tung Liang & Chiu Chien-Yu, 2009, Job Standardization: Helping Adaptation and Retention of Newly Graduated Nurses. The Journal of Human Resource and Adult Learning Vol. 5, Num.1
http://hraljournal.com/Page/18%20Tung%20Liang%20Hsiung.pdf
HST, 1998, Supporting staff through effective supervision: How to assess, plan and implement more effective clinic supervision.
http://www.hst.org.za/uploads/files/kwiksk15.pdf
Jones Jacky, 2006, General Practice Nursing Preceptorship & Assessment Booklet
http://www.rcn.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/176298/preceptorship.pdf
Mallory L. Judy & Allen L. Charles, 2006, Care of the dying: a positive nursing student experience.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FSS/is_4_15/ai_n17214423/
Rippy Jennifer & Baker Howard, 2003, The Nurse Preceptor: Knowledge Transfer in Healthcare
http://www.leadingtoday.org/weleadinlearning/jrapr03.htm
Spaulding Angela, Chen Kuan-Hao, Nix J. Susan, web, First Year Nursing Students’ Perceptions of Death at Jen-Te Junior College in Taiwan. The journal of Multiculturalism in Education.
http://www.multiculturaljournal.com/volumes/3/perceptions_of_death.pdf
Victoria, 2003, Graduate Nurse Program Guidelines: Nurse Policy Branch, Melbourne, Victoria
http://www.health.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/17609/gnp-guidelines.pdf
