3 Precepting Tips for Priority Onboarding

New nurses and new preceptors are filling staffing gaps at record levels in many hospitals across the country, and the projected need for new nurses will only increase as more periop nurses near retirement.

With an increased need for expedient onboarding, we asked AORN Director of Education Colleen Becker, PhD, MSN, RN CCRN-K, what approach preceptors should be taking to create competent and confident nurses to rapidly fill positions.

Her advice: priority onboarding.

To achieve priority onboarding, Becker says preceptors must have the right balance of interpersonal skills, education techniques and clinical expertise to help a new nurse bridge the gap between theoretical learning and delivering safe, quality care. She says achieving this balance requires access to preceptor training, skill with providing feedback to orientees and consistent leadership support.

“Every new nurse will come in with a different skill set to hone and every new nurse will need onboarding preparation that is tailored to the current needs in their specific practice environment—this means preceptors need to take a nuanced approach to efficiently assessing and reassessing orientees learning needs,” she adds.

Here are Becker’s three tips for preceptors to improve their skills for priority onboarding:

1. Get Precepting Training

Preceptors can hit the ground running with their first cohort of orientees when they are given time to develop themselves, Becker says.

“OR leaders are recognizing the importance of preparing preceptors with the soft skills to connect with orientees in a way that helps facilitate communication and giving feedback for optimal clinical preparation.”

2. Find Your Best Orientee Match

“Personalities will naturally connect in different ways and smart OR leaders are realizing the benefits of personality tests for preceptors and orientees to make the right match for successful onboarding from the beginning,” Becker notes.

She says OR leaders also play a critical role in closely monitoring preceptor/orientee relationships and adjusting quickly when needed.

3. Practice to Provide Successful Feedback

“As a preceptor, you know you may have tough feedback to give that will be essential to an orientee’s preparation, so make sure you are an expert at presenting feedback by practicing,” Becker advises.

For example, she says a preceptor can role-play with a fellow preceptor or leader to present their planned feedback to an orientee and get advice on any tweaks to ensure the orientee will take it to heart.

She also points to simple tools like an onboarding checklist in Periop 101 to give preceptors a road map to cover all of the basics to prepare a new nurse.

OR Leaders Must Take an Active Role

To OR leaders, Becker encourages a special focus on training preceptors for success and recognizing them in daily practice and at the organizational level.

“No matter what stage of practice a perioperative nurse is in, each needs convenient access to all the tools for success, including the essentials of evidence-based practice guidance as well as the basics of professionalism, civility, and professional growth.”

Precepting education will be a priority for AORN in 2023, Becker says, noting that an additional emphasis on developing interpersonal skills and specific precepting practices will be incorporated into new offerings for preceptors in the year ahead.

AORN has several important tools for preceptors available now, including:

• Preceptor Certificate Program
• Periop 101
  • Preceptor Guidelines and Resources
  • Orientation Resources