Roles and responsibilities of nurse preceptors: Perception of preceptors and preceptees

In this study setting, preceptors, who were clinical teaching assistants and hospital employed nurses assist through an interactive process preceptees, who were nursing students, in developing clinical skills and integration into the culture of the clinical area. Therefore, roles and responsibilities of preceptors should be clear and meet the expectations of preceptors and preceptees. This study aimed at comparing similarities and differences of perception to roles and responsibilities as held by nurse preceptors and their preceptees in relation to how important such roles and responsibilities are, and how frequently preceptors attend to the role. A self-administered questionnaire using Boyer's (2008) roles and responsibilities was completed by a convenience sample of 87 preceptee and 62 preceptors amounting to 66.9% and 77.5% response rate respectively. The questionnaire included 43 items and two 4-points Likert-type scales: “Importance of”, and “frequency of attendance to roles”. Two versions were developed: one for preceptors and the other for preceptees. The reliability (Alpha values) was .944 for the importance and .973 for the frequency of attendance scales. Mean scores indicated agreement among the two groups in relation to importance of, but to disagreement in relation to frequency of attendance to certain roles and responsibilities. Both groups perceived roles and responsibilities as important but varied with significant difference in rating preceptors' frequency of attendance to their roles as educators and facilitators.