Theme: Retention

Retention through preceptorship done right. It is well known that a good preceptorship supports nurses to became confident and competent practitioners, whilst a lesser programme may cause nurses to leave early in their professional journey. This ideas exchange discussion will feature insight into preceptorship best practice, as well as asking delegates to share their challenges and success when it comes to retention through preceptorship done right, including:

• How is your organisation ensuring Preceptorship best practice?
• How are you supporting learning and development in an understaffed environment?
• How are you using the data from your survey and feedback to improve your preceptorship programmes?
• How are you fostering a collaborative culture and encouraging nurses to speak up?
• How are you supporting preceptors?

Preparing newly qualified nurses to became leaders. Rachel Berridge, learning and development trainer – clinical education, Nuffield Health Questions for the table:

• Think back to when you were newly qualified - did you see yourself as a leader? why/why not?
• What can we put in place during Preceptorship to support newly qualified nurses to see themselves as leaders?
• How do you think involving newly qualified nurses in quality improvement activities throughout Preceptorship will impact on their development?

Practically supporting transition in the workplace

Dr Kerry Jones, director (nursing and midwifery education transformation) Coventry University & Coventry & Warwickshire Integrated Care System

Questions for the table:

• We know that if we retain early career nurses for the first two years, they are likely to remain in the profession for at least the next 10. How are you encouraging ‘big picture’ thinking and engaging individuals at all levels in relation to the value of front-loading resources and support during the preceptorship period.
• How have you identified the things that make the greatest positive difference to your nurses and midwives as they professionally transition during the preceptorship period and how have you used this learning to target interventions to deliver transformational change?

What changes should we implement following the learning from the Nursing Times survey? Professor Gemma Stacey, deputy chief executive officer/ director of FNF policy unit, Florence Nightingale Foundation

Questions for the table:

• 84% of registered nurses think it is more challenging to transition to practice now than ever before. What is your reaction to this statistic?
• What do you see as the most important outcome of preceptorship?
• Capacity within the workforce was identified as a key barrier to the implementation of preceptorship, how can we address this?
• Students and NRNs placed a high value on clinical supervision as part of preceptorship, what are your thoughts on this and how might we take this forward?
• Miracle question - Suppose that while you are sleeping tonight and the entire house is quiet, a miracle happens. The miracle is that the problem which brought you here is solved. However, because you are sleeping, you don’t know that the miracle has happened. So, when you wake up tomorrow morning, what will be different that will tell you that a miracle has happened and the problem which brought you here is solved?” (de Shazer, 1988)

Preceptorship best practice for primary care

Louise Berwick, training hub director, primary care workforce & training hub, Primary Care Doncaster Limited

Questions for the table:

• Why is primary care a special case when it comes to preceptorship?
• How can good nurse preceptorship in primary care positively effect the whole primary care team?
• How do we ensure primary care nursing preceptorship is valued equally in our ICB/ICS as the numbers are much smaller?

How are you supporting preceptors?

Winnie George, national programme lead (retention), NHS England

Questions for the table:

• What support or development do you have for preceptors in your organisation or system?- Would you like to share any challenges or success in implementing your Preceptor support/development
• How have you demonstrated that the role of Preceptor is valued and appreciated within the organisation?
• If you had all the funding you needed to develop the most amazing Preceptor development programme/package, what would it look like?