NSG/531 Week 5: Instructional Methods and Strategies, sample paper

A One-Day Workshop, Role-Plays With Real Orientee Problems and a Monthly Preceptor Circle: Selecting Teaching Methods for Forty-One Medical-Surgical Preceptors

[Student Name]

University of Phoenix

NSG/531: Program and Course Development

Week 5 Assignment

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

The hospital, its staff and the program are a composite written for a model paper.

In Week 4, I wrote eight measurable objectives for the 41 nurses who precept new graduates on our hospital's medical-surgical units. This paper selects the methods that will help them meet those objectives. The needs assessment described the learners as experienced, practical nurses on twelve-hour shifts who want relevant, hands-on learning and who precept while carrying patient assignments.

Method 1: Preparatory Reading and Reflection

Two weeks before the workshop, each preceptor receives a short packet: a two-page summary of transition shock based on the work of Duchscher (2009), the unit's competency checklist and a single reflection prompt, "Describe your first month as a nurse, and one thing a preceptor did that helped or hurt." This method serves objective 1 and draws on adult learning principles by using the preceptor's own experience as the starting point. It takes about 30 minutes and can be done at any time.

Method 2: A One-Day Interactive Workshop

The core of the program is an eight-hour paid workshop for groups of ten to twelve preceptors, held on both weekdays and weekends to fit rotating schedules. The day is divided into four parts.

Part 1, the first year through the orientee's eyes, 90 minutes. Preceptors share their reflections, and two new graduates from the past year describe their orientation experiences on a panel. Hearing directly from recent orientees is more persuasive than any statistic, and it serves objective 1.

Part 2, coaching clinical judgment, two hours. The educator explains the clinical judgment model described by Tanner (2006) in 20 minutes, then models a precepted assessment in which the preceptor thinks aloud and asks noticing, interpreting, responding and reflecting questions. Preceptors practice in pairs with short patient scenarios drawn from their units. This serves objectives 3 and 4 and follows the modeling, practice and feedback sequence of social learning theory (Bandura, 1977).

Part 3, feedback and difficult conversations, two hours. The educator introduces a three-part feedback structure, specific behavior, effect and next step, and demonstrates it. Preceptors then role-play conversations based on real problems from the needs assessment: an orientee who is slow, one who is overconfident and one who made a medication error. Role-plays built from the hospital's own problems let preceptors rehearse the conversations they most dread before they have them with a real orientee. This serves objectives 5 and 7.

Part 4, planning and evaluating progress, 90 minutes. Preceptors practice building a weekly orientation plan with a mock orientee using the competency checklist, complete a progress record and discuss how to judge readiness for independent practice and when to escalate. This serves objectives 2, 6 and 7.

Method 3: Observed Precepting With Coaching

Within two months of the workshop, the educator observes each preceptor for two hours during a real precepted shift and gives private, structured feedback on reasoning questions, thinking aloud and feedback, the same structure preceptors were taught to use. This method serves objectives 3, 4, 5 and 8 and gives the transfer from workshop to practice that a single training day cannot guarantee. Preceptors who wish can observe a colleague from the lowest-turnover unit, which extends the modeling that social learning theory emphasizes.

Method 4: A Monthly Preceptor Circle

Preceptors meet for one hour each month, on paid time, in a small group led by the educator. Each meeting takes one real problem, anonymized, and the group discusses what happened and what might work. The precepting literature identifies ongoing support for preceptors as a key element of effective programs (Ward & McComb, 2017), and the circle also answers the 17 preceptors in Week 1 who said they would not volunteer again under current conditions.

Method 5: Job Aids

Each preceptor receives a pocket card with clinical judgment questions for each phase and the three-part feedback structure, and the weekly progress record is added to the electronic orientation file.

Adapting for Diverse Learners

Preceptors differ in experience, education, comfort with role-play and schedule. Nurses uncomfortable with role-play in front of the group will practice first in pairs before any group demonstration. Night-shift preceptors will have a workshop date scheduled around their sleep, and circles will be held at the start of the night shift once a quarter. Preceptors whose first language is not English will receive the packet in advance to read at their own pace. Seasoned preceptors from the unit with the best retention will co-facilitate role-plays, using their expertise and giving other preceptors peer models.

Sequencing and Spacing

The order of methods is deliberate. Reflection comes first so that preceptors arrive already thinking about their own first year. The workshop introduces and rehearses skills in a safe setting. Observation follows within two months, while the skills are still fresh, and the circles continue monthly so that skills are used, discussed and refined over a full year. Spacing learning over time rather than concentrating it in one day is more likely to produce lasting change in behavior, and it matches how precepting actually unfolds: an orientation lasts twelve weeks, and problems appear at different points in it. A preceptor who struggles in week eight with an orientee who is not progressing can bring the problem to that month's circle rather than having to recall a workshop from months before.

Methods Considered and Rejected

Two methods were considered and set aside. A fully online course would be easier to schedule, but it could not provide the practice and feedback that precepting skills need, and the needs assessment showed preceptors wanted hands-on learning. A multi-day certification course offered by an outside organization would be thorough, but its cost and time away from the units were beyond what leadership would approve, and it would not use the hospital's own problems or orientation tools. The chosen mix keeps most of the benefits of both at lower cost.

Resources and Schedule

The program requires the educator's time for design, delivery and observation; paid time for each preceptor of about 12 hours in the first year; a classroom; and printing. It runs over twelve months: workshops in months 1 through 4, observations in months 2 through 6, circles monthly throughout. The cost is small against the cost of replacing new graduates who leave.

Linking Methods to Evaluation

Each method also produces evidence for the evaluation planned in Week 6. The workshop generates knowledge checks and role-play checklists, observation generates structured notes on precepting behavior and the circles generate a record of recurring problems. Designing methods that produce evidence as a by-product keeps evaluation from becoming a separate burden on preceptors who already have little time.

Conclusion

Preparatory reflection, an interactive workshop built on the hospital's own problems, observed precepting with coaching, a monthly preceptor circle and job aids together move preceptors from understanding to practice and keep their skills alive. Each method serves specific objectives, and the program fits nurses who work rotating shifts. Week 6 will plan how the program will be evaluated.

References

Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory. Prentice Hall.

Duchscher, J. E. B. (2009). Transition shock: The initial stage of role adaptation for newly graduated registered nurses. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 65(5), 1103-1113. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2648.2008.04898.x

Tanner, C. A. (2006). Thinking like a nurse: A research-based model of clinical judgment in nursing. Journal of Nursing Education, 45(6), 204-211. https://doi.org/10.3928/01484834-20060601-04

Ward, A., & McComb, S. (2017). Precepting: A literature review. Journal of Professional Nursing, 33(5), 314-325. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.profnurs.2017.07.007