College of Nursing & Professional Disciplines

Preceptor Portal

Preceptors are vital.

Thank you for generously offering to precept a UND graduate nursing student. The UND faculty truly value our health care partners and the invaluable role they play in preparing our students for advanced practice. Without your expertise, time, and willingness to teach, our students would not be able to complete their educational goals.

Overview

Students will complete 200-300 hours of direct care per semester, for a total of approximately 600 hours during their complete clinical experience over three semesters.
Students need to complete required hours within semester time frames.
A student may be with more than one preceptor during their clinical experience. The number of preceptors is dependent on the facility, preceptor, and student accommodations.

Roles and Responsibilities

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Review course syllabus and objectives, plus learner objectives, to structure the experience.
Orient the student to the clinical site and staff.
Advise the student of expectations with respect to communication, attire, documentation, and patient visits, teaching and disposition.
Provide access to patients and help the student select appropriate patients to develop the advanced practitioner role.
Promote a positive learning environment – encourage inquiry, critical analysis, and reflection.
Provide direct supervision, which could include supervision of any clinical procedures practiced in your setting (e.g., suturing, casting, and GYN exams/biopsies). Students will be tracking procedural opportunities obtained.
Be present during all student clinical experiences – substitution is accepted during absences if cleared in advance.
Validate clinical findings and data reported by the student and review documentation in medical records when applicable.
Assist students in making differential diagnoses, offer a broad spectrum of treatment options from which they can choose, offer feedback to facilitate learning, and give homework assignments if desired.
Observe the student for steady improvement in critical reasoning, diagnostic thinking, exam techniques, plan development, and documentation.
Communicate with faculty regarding student progress, including if the student is not progressing clinically or there’s any breach of professionalism.
Verify students clinical hours.
Engage with the clinical faculty to discuss student progress.
Complete and submit requested assessment(s).

Verify that all agency-specific onboarding requirements have been met and CNPD verifications have been submitted.
Communicate with clinical placement coordinator and receive permission to begin clinical rotation.
Communicate with preceptor regarding learner objectives.
Negotiate a schedule with preceptor and determine date(s) for the clinical assessments.
Arrive to site early, review preceptor schedule and determine plan for the day.
Be prepared with equipment and resources.
Complete any review as requested by preceptor prior to arriving at the site.
Be professional, respectful, thankful, and engaged.
Perform data collection, interpretation of diagnostics, identify differential diagnoses and working diagnosis, develop and implement a care plan and document encounter (either in EMR or written form) for each exposure.
Document all encounters and hours in Typhon in timely fashion
Identify specific assessments that students are expected to complete.

Verify preceptor/site eligibility including clinical agreement/contract.
Ensure clinical experience aligns with program/course objectives.
Provide preceptor resources for the role.
Make clinical site visits (may be done via teleconference).
Facilitate communication between program, student, and preceptor.
Periodic synchronous conference calls to discuss clinical experiences, review clinical progress and monitor student progression between faculty and the student.
Evaluate student learning.

Accountability

Students will be logging their clinical hours as well as HIPAA-compliant encounters, diagnoses and procedures in Typhon, the clinical data management system used by CNPD.
All entries are to be completed within a timely manner of clinical exposure and are to be maintained on an ongoing basis until the rotation is completed.
The student’s Clinical Faculty will review and approve the hours they enter into Typhon.

Site Visits

While the student is working with you, a UND-employed Clinical Faculty member may visit the student for a Clinical Site Evaluation and/or complete a teleconference session for feedback on the student’s performance.
The student will provide you with information regarding a site visit and faculty contact information prior to any such meetings.

Assessment & Verification

At the mid-term and end of the rotation preceptors will be asked to complete an assessment of the student's performance. Preceptors will receive an email notification asking them to complete this assessment. Instructions will be included in the email.
After completion of the assessment, CNPD will send the preceptor a verification of preceptor hours to use for re-certification or annual review needs.