As a nurse preceptor, setting goals is a critical aspect of providing quality guidance and professional development for new and experienced nurses. By setting goals and tracking progress, you can ensure that your efforts are focused, actionable, and meaningful. In this blog post, we’ll discuss the importance of setting nursing preceptor goals, as well as tips for effectively setting, monitoring, and tracking these goals. We’ll also discuss the benefits of setting nursing preceptor goals, such as developing a shared vision for success, creating accountability, and improving the preceptor-nurse relationship. By the end of this post, you’ll have a better understanding of the importance of setting nursing preceptor goals and be equipped with the tools to set effective goals that you can track and measure.
What are nursing preceptor goals?
The nursing preceptor goals are objectives established for beginning nurses who collaborate with a preceptor at the start of their first healthcare positions. While achieving these goals, the nurses can better integrate into the workforce and acquire critical job skills. When setting goals, nurse preceptors frequently use the SMART goal framework. Every objective established using the SMART system is precise, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound. By utilizing frameworks like these, the goals can be meaningful and pertinent to each nurse and the healthcare environment.
What is a nurse preceptor?
A more seasoned nurse serves as a mentor for a student nurse, graduate nurse, or any other new employee beginning their employment. While the nurse preceptor still has final say in patient care, they instruct new nurses in clinical techniques and methods to promote autonomy and follow the right procedures. The nurse preceptors role includes:
Nurse preceptors keep working to improve nurses’ fundamental understanding of medical conditions and therapies for patients in their field. Through the preceptors’ guidance and example, new nurses can learn improved communication, how to deliver high-quality healthcare, how to maintain patient safety, and how to use various healthcare delivery systems. The following crucial competencies can be developed by a nurse through working with a preceptor to learn these skills:
10 goals for nurses and preceptors
A preceptor and student nurse can set the following objectives together:
1. Enhance communication with other personnel
Effective communication between a new nurse and their colleagues is made possible by a nurse preceptor. By giving crucial information or asking important questions during each interaction, preceptors also instruct on effective communication. With this information, new nurses can meet with doctors and patients with assurance.
In order to improve communication with a nurse, a nurse preceptor can:
These improved communication skills can be useful for future jobs and resumes even outside of the workplace.
2. Strengthen organizational skills
Organizational skills involve effective management of time and resources. When filing and making records, a nurse preceptor can assist nurses in remaining organized. Detailed task documentation can aid nurses in developing better time management skills.
The following are some ways the nurse preceptor can improve the nurses organizational abilities:
3. Increase psychomotor ability
In order to react accurately or quickly, a person must have psychomotor skills that call for hand-eye coordination. The intravenous drip administration of medication and the use of medical equipment are two nursing tasks that call for psychomotor skills. The nurses must practice until they need little to no supervision in order to develop these skills. The nurse preceptor can promote independence through the following tasks:
4. Increase medical knowledge
For nurses to provide quality care, medical conditions, their diagnosis, and the appropriate medication must be understood. A fruitful preceptorship can assist nurses in building this foundation of medical knowledge that they can use in a variety of circumstances. A nurse preceptor can encourage medical expertise through:
5. Strengthen critical thinking skills
Critical thinking is the process of analyzing a situation and coming up with a reasoned solution. Every day, decision-making for patient care requires the application of critical thinking to recognize illnesses from symptoms and properly prescribe medications. A nurse preceptor can promote critical thinking through:
6. Develop leadership skills
Interpersonal skills are used to motivate people to work together toward a common objective or finish a task. Given that nurses typically collaborate with a number of other nurses, medical professionals, and specialists on teams, these skills are beneficial in the healthcare sector. The preceptor can encourage leadership skills through:
7. Enhance assertiveness skills
Being assertive means being self-assured and confident without being hostile. When negotiating with patients who might be aggressive or uncooperative, communicating intelligently with doctors, and delegating tasks, these abilities are helpful. The following techniques can be used by the nurse preceptor to encourage assertiveness in their nurses:
8. Provide quality patient education
Patient education involves informing a patient about their diagnosis, the medication, and any possible side effects. The nurse first determines the patient’s educational needs before creating and carrying out a lesson plan. The nurse preceptor can help with this process by:
9. Participate in organized learning experiences
To stay current on the most recent medical and procedural developments, nurses continue their formal education by attending educational workshops and seminars. This continuing education for nurses in clinical competency, professionalism, and unit norms may be provided by a nurse preceptor. To help the nurses learn these skills and gauge their progress, the preceptor may create a competency checklist.
10. Be a role model of nursing values
A person who exemplifies ethical standards and values in their professional conduct is referred to as a role model. Novice nurses can pick up on all of their nurse preceptors’ behaviors and start implementing those principles into their own work performance. A nurse can be an effective role model by:
10 tips for new nurse preceptors
FAQ
What are your goals as a preceptor?
The preceptor’s objective is to offer worthwhile teaching and learning opportunities and serve as an example of safe patient care through the use of evidence-based practice. An experienced nurse with 20 years of experience who is new to the unit may be working with preceptors.
What are some good nursing goals?
- Increase your technology skills. Develop your healthcare technology abilities. …
- Get certifications. Receive nursing certifications. …
- Improve your efficiency. …
- Further your communication skills. …
- Find a mentor. …
- Get an advanced degree. …
- Become an expert at certain tasks. …
- Optimize your patient care.
What are the 5 SMART nursing goals?
- Safety.
- Patient Care.
- Efficiency.
- Accuracy.
- Professional Development.
