Impact of educational strategies on preceptor development

The healthcare industry demands that nurses be flexible, adaptable, independent, reflective, have well developed problem-solving abilities and critical thinking skills. Learning and teaching critical thinking strategies rests with the preceptor's ability to develop these skills in the novice nurse. The purpose of the quantitative study was to determine if a critical thinking program for nurse preceptors leads to significant differences in the critical thinking scores. The study also evaluated if there was a relationship between a certain critical thinking strategy and the difference in pretest and posttest total or sub scores in HSRT by nurse preceptors. The Health Science Reasoning Test (HSRT) was administered to the nurse preceptors who attended a preceptor update class. This study showed no statistically significant differences between the control group pretest and posttest scores compared to the pretest and posttest scores of the experimental group. A mild positive correlation was determined in the difference between the pretest and post inference scores and the critical thinking strategy of reflection. The nurse preceptors identified a minimal to moderate change in their practice by implementing the critical thinking strategies that were taught in class. The nurses also identified that the activities of the unit and time restraints occasionally impacted their abilities to implement the strategies at the bedside. The study assists in bridging the gap of knowledge as it relates to the preceptors ability to learn critical thinking and the ability to incorporate the strategies learned into practice.