An investigation of the roles and functions of nurse preceptors in the clinical areas

This article explores the confusion that exists in the clinical areas concerning proper accompaniment of student nurses. There is a feeling that professional nurses in clinical areas are not always actively involved in clinical teaching. The clinical instructors and nurse educators are unable to accompany student nurses properly because of staff shortages. Some hospitals have identified one professional nurse per unit to work as a nurse preceptor for accompaniment of student nurses. This has resulted in the need to find out if the professional nurse preceptor is solving the problem of lack of student accompaniment in clinical areas. The aim of this study therefore is to investigate the roles and functions of nurse preceptors in improving student accom­ paniment as compared to other professional nurses in clinical areas namely, clinical instructors, nurse educators and professional nurses working in clinical areas as viewed by student nurses themselves. A comparative descriptive study was done in one of the hospitals in KwaZulu-Natal (Region D) on a purposely selected sample of (80) 4 years comprehensive diploma student nurses, (16) nurse preceptors and (40) randomly-selected profes­ sional nurses. Open and closed-ended questions were used for collection of data. The study revealed that the most student nurses 87,5% (70) identified nurse preceptors as playing an important role in their accompaniment as compared to other professional nurses.


Introduction
T he clinical practice is the area w here student nurses are supposed to gain their learning experiences.It is also w here they are supp o sed to co rre la te acq u ired theory w ith p ractice (M ellish & B rink, 1993:227).The outcom e w ould then be com petent, efficient, m ature, in dependent, creative and critical thinking professional nurse w ho should be able to render quality patient care (M ellish & B rink, 1993:336).It is the p o stulate o f this article that this w ill m aterialise should student nurses be accom panied in clinical areas by professional nurses o f a high calibre.Furtherm ore, the p ro fessional nurses should not only be highly know ledgeable but they m ust also be readily available to student nurses.
At present it is difficult to achieve the outcomes mentioned above because there is confusion concerning the proper accom paniment of student nurses in clinical areas.The general feeling is that not all professional nurses are actively involved in clinical teaching.To solve this problem some hospitals identified a nurse preceptor who is a professional nurse, identified from existing nursing team of each Unit to accompany student nurses.This study therefore was done to determine the exact roles and func tions of nurse preceptors in improving student accompaniment.This was done by comparing nurse preceptors' contributions in student accompaniment to other professional nurses namely, clini cal instructors, nurse educators and other professional nurses in the Units as perceived by student nurses.According to Quinn (1995:189) the role of nurse preceptors is to assist in socialization of student nurses by orientating and guiding them in acquisition of knowledge and skills needed for patient care.It is envisaged that the views of students as recipients of clinical teaching are important in solving the existing problem of a lack of student accompaniment.

Background to the study
A hospital in KwaZulu-Natal (Region D) was specifically cho sen for the study due to the fact that it was utilizing nurse preceptors for clinical teaching of student nurses in its clinical areas during investigation.It was found that while nurse edu cators were expected to accom pany student nurses, a short age of staff limits them to lectures in the classroom, resulting in minimal student accompaniment.According to Troskie, Guwa and Booyens (1998:44) a shortage of nurse tutors makes it difficult for one nurse tutor to spend enough time with each student nurse.W hile clinical instructors from clinical depart ments also accompany student nurses, they are too few in number.Sometimes clinical instructors manage to demonstrate procedures to each student once or twice a week only, instead of daily demonstrations.
In clinical areas professional nurses are supposed to teach student nurses together with nurse preceptors who are profes sional nurses identified to act as role models for student nurses (Quinn, 1995:189).Professional nurses working in the Units see their roles as administrative and that of patient care.They do not see themselves as nurse educators since nurse precep tors are there in the clinical areas.Troskie etal. (1998:44) state that m ultidimensional roles o f Unit managers and especially staff shortages cause patient care to take priority, with clinical teaching o f student nurses not a priority.
Nurse preceptors are also allocated to assist student nurses with clinical teaching, while at the same time are expected to do Unit adm inistration and provision of patient care.Nurse pre ceptors therefore accepted their roles to be more educational than administrative and patient care tasks.Quinn (1995:188) sees the role o f a preceptor as a resource person for student nurses in clinical areas.
However, the problem is that when there is no nurse preceptor available in clinical areas clinical teaching of student nurses is neglected.Student accompaniment would appear a problem in all hospitals, also those utilizing clinical instructors and not nurse preceptors.There is a need for this problem to be solved by identifying one category of professional nurses to specifi cally do student accom panim ent.Goodchild-Brown (1986:5) regards student accom panim ent as a team approach consist ing of clinical educators, U nit professional nurses, nurse man agers and nurse tutors as resource persons.
There is a general agreem ent in the nursing profession that each and every professional nurse has a teaching function of student nurses.Different authors identify different roles and functions of nurse preceptors, clinical instructors, nurse edu cators and professional nurses in student accompaniment in clinical areas, as set out below.and Brink ( 1993:227)identified the roles and functions of nurse preceptors as evaluating performance and providing feedback instruction based on objectives and needs o f indi vidual student.Ewan and White (1994:84) on the other hand, identified the roles and functions o f nurse preceptors as facilitators, helpers, challengers, colleagues and researchers.Reilly and Oerman (1992:263) assert that nurse preceptors should provide student nurses with a climate conducive to learning.It can therefore be concluded that the roles and functions of nurse preceptors are regarded as being of prime importance in student accompaniment.

Roles of clinical instructors in student accompaniment
Clifford (1993) cited in Tanner (1996:52) identifies the roles and functions o f clinical instructors as acting as liaison, a go-be tween, a bridge between nursing education and the nursing service, working to build good relationships that will facilitate student learning.On the other hand Quinn (1995:186) m en tions the key roles for clinical instructors as educational sup port for students, tutoring students and facilitating good prac tice for student nurses.The above roles of clinical instructors are also important because there seem to be problems facing the nursing profession about poor relationships between nurs ing education and nursing services, which may hinder clinical teaching for student nurses.

Roles and functions of professional nurses in clinical areas for student accompaniment
Quinn (1998:188) states that professional nurses are responsi ble for teaching, supervision, guidance, counselling, assess ment and evaluation of student nurses in clinical areas.

Roles and functions of nurse educators in student accompaniment
Brookes and Thomas (1997:50) regard the roles and functions o f nurse educators as preparing student nurses for profes sional practice, teaching student nurses to view clients' / pa tients' situations holistically and teach them to be expert deci sion-makers in many settings.
Even if the viewpoints on the roles and functions o f profes sional nurses seem to be different, they all agree that the pro fessional nurses perform almost the same functions in clinical areas in the accompaniment of student nurses.It was there fore the premise of the study that was undertaken that with guidance and support o f nurse preceptors, with their proper utilization, the problem of a lack o f student accom panim ent in clinical areas could be constructively addressed.

Statement of the problem
Confusion concerning the proper accompaniment of student nurses in clinical practice areas is facing the nursing profes sion.There is a general feeling that professional nurses are not actively involved in clinical teaching of student nurses.The clinical instructors and nurse educators are unable to ac com pany student nurses properly because o f staff shortages and heavy workloads.
Some hospitals have identified one professional nurse from the allocated staff m em bers in the Unit to work as a nurse preceptor to accompany student nurses in each Unit.Even if this nurse preceptor is utilized there is still a problem with stu dent accompaniment.This problem of a lack or poor student accom panim ent in clinical areas influenced the researchers to investigate the exact roles and functions o f nurse preceptors in student accompanim ent as compared to Unit professional nurses, clinical instructors and nurse educators as viewed by student nurses, in order to solve the problem of a lack o f stu dent accom panim ent in clinical areas.

1.
To determine the exact roles and functions of nurse preceptors in accompaniment of student nurses as com pared to other professional nurses.

2.
To determine nurse preceptors' effectiveness in their roles as clinical instructors as compared to other pro fessional nurses.

3.
To identify the problems encountered by nurse precep tors in clinical practice areas.

4.
To make recommendations concerning the future roles and functions of nurse preceptors in clinical teaching.

Definition of Terms Nurse preceptor
A nurse preceptor is understood to be a professional nurse.She/he can in a practice situation act as a resource person to student nurses while at the same time promote and participate in the delivery of patient care.This professional nurse is part o f the existing nursing care team for a specific Unit.

Accompaniment
Accom panim ent in nursing education is directed assistance and support extended to a student nurse by a registered Nurse or registered midwife with the aim of developing a competent and independent practitioner (S ANC, 1992:8).

Student nurse
A student nurse could be either a 'degree' or a 'diplom a' stu dent.For the purposes of this article, a student is a diploma student understood to be undergoing education for four years to fulfil the South African Nursing Council requirements to become a registered nurse (General, Psychiatry and Com m u nity) and midwife (SANC, R425:1985).

Clinical areas
Clinical areas are learning opportunities situated in the prac tice field / or in the health service which the student utilizes under supervision of a registered nurse and midwife, and/or other experts in the health service (SANC, 1992:7).

Professional nurse
A professional nurse is an independent practitioner of the pro fession of nursing registered with the South African Nursing Council.She/he would be held accountable for her/his acts and omissions and is responsible to the employers and society which she/he serves, to herself / him self as well as the nursing profession for maintenance of the highest standard of profes sional knowledge and competence (Mellish & Wannenburg, 1993:4).

Nurse educator
According to Brink (1989:1) a nurse educator refers to all pro fessional nurses who have an additional qualification as nurse tutor entered behind their names in the South African Nursing Register for tutors.

Clinical instructors
A clinical instructor is a registered nurse who should have insight into teaching and learning.This nurse should there fore be an average practitioner o f nursing with a very broad theoretical knowledge.This knowledge should be constantly updated to keep pace with the latest developments in medicine and nursing (Mellish & Wannenburg, 1993:68).

Clinical teaching
Clinical teaching is teaching in a clinical nursing laboratory by means of which the student nurse is taught and accompanied towards independent practice and use of own abilities (SANC, 1992:8).

Research design
This was a comparative descriptive study designed to investi gate the roles and functions o f nurse preceptors in student accompaniment in clinical areas, as compared to other profes sional nurses, as perceived by student nurses them selves.These methods were chosen in order to get information about student accompaniment.

Area of study
Area o f study was in KwaZulu-Natal Province which is di vided into 8 regions A, B, C, D, E, F, G and H.One hospital in region D was conveniently selected because it was the only hospital utilizing nurse preceptors for student accompaniment in this region.The few hospitals utilizing nurse preceptors are far north of the Province like Region F and H. M ost hospitals in Region D are utilizing clinical instructors for student accom paniment in clinical areas.This hospital consists of 9 depart ments.In this study only 4 departm ents were included.These were the Paediatric, Orthopaedic, Surgical and Medical depart ments.The criteria for selection was that all had student nurses allocated in their establishm ent and that each Unit in these departments had a nurse preceptor allocated to accompany student nurses.The other departments did not have nurse preceptors even if they had student nurses in their establish ment.Each department selected had 4 Units making a total of 16 Units.
Table 1 : Age distribution of respondents

Sample and sampling
A purposive and systematic random sampling was used in this study to select 4-year comprehensive diploma student nurses, nurse preceptors and professional nurses.

Selection of nurse preceptors
Each of the 16 wards had a nurse preceptor allocated making a total of 16 nurse preceptors.These nurse preceptors were all purposely selected for the study because they were few in numbers.

Target population
The three groups o f people that were involved in this study were as follows: • Four-year com prehensive diploma student nurses ir respective of level of education and training.They were se lected because they had more experience in being accom pa nied, from first-year to 4th year of study as compared to other types of student nurses like bridging students, who are ac companied for 2 years only.

•
Nurse preceptors who were professional nurses iden tified in the allocated staff o f the Unit to accompany student nurses; at the same time involved in administration and patient care tasks.They were selected in order that student nurses mention their contributions in their accompaniment as com pared to other professional nurses.

•
Professional nurses working with nurse preceptors in clinical areas also supervising student nurses were selected.Their inclusion was done so that they have input on the contri butions made by nurse preceptors in student accompaniment.
Nurse educators and clinical instructors were not interviewed because they were not always working with student nurses in clinical areas.

Selection of 4-year comprehensive diploma student nurses
Each ward had 10 student nurses allocated making a total of 160 student nurses.These students were com posed o f 80 students doing a bridging course and 80 doing a 4-year com prehensive diploma course.In this study only the 4-year com prehensive diploma student nurses were selected.All 80 stu dent nurses doing the 4-year comprehensive course were pur posely selected for the study in order to obtain information about their accompaniment.

Selection of professional nurses
Professional nurses were selected using a systematic random sampling.Every 3rd professional nurse was selected from the population of 120 from the four departments, until a sample of 40 was selected.This was done in order to gather information from different categories of professional nurses about the ex pected roles and functions of nurse preceptors regarding the accom panim ent o f student nurses in clinical areas.

The Research instrument
The research instruments were self-administered to all respond ents in order to clarify and explain questions that were less understood.The instruments used were three questionnaires with open-and closed-ended questions based on literature review ed and objectives of the study targeting 4-year com pre hensive diplom a student nurses, nurse preceptors and profes sional nurses.
problems they experienced in student accompaniment.

Validity and reliability of the instruments
Questionnaire for 4-year comprehensive diploma student nurses This questionnaire com prised 5 sections which covered the following: demographic data, level of training, important cat egories of nursing personnel that contributed most in their accompanim ent, contributions that were made by nursing per sonnel m entioned in their accompaniment, and problems ex perienced by student nurses.

Questionnaire for nurse preceptors
Questionnaires for nurse preceptors were divided into the fol lowing 4 sections, namely demographic data, educational in formation, employment history which included their experience as preceptors, num ber o f students supervised per day and the The three questionnaires for student nurses, nurse preceptors and professional nurses were developed after reviewing litera ture relating to roles and functions o f nurse preceptors and other professional nurses in student accompaniment.This was done in order to ensure content validity.
The instruments were tested for face and content validity by senior professional nurses, nurse educators who were research experts to detect ambiguity, check appropriateness and ad equacy to collect valid information for the study.Minor changes and adjustment were done on the questionnaires.A pilot study was conducted prior to the main study on 5 nurse preceptors who were included in the study, 10 student nurses and 10 pro fessional nurses who were not included in this study.This was done to check the suitability of the instrument.Each inter view took 30-35 minutes to complete.The questionnaires were

Questionnaire for professional nurses
On the other hand questionnaire for professional nurses com prised 5 sections namely, demographic data, educational infor mation, employment history which included experience as pro fessional nurses, num ber of student nurses they supervised per day and role they played in student accom panim ent, role played by nurse preceptors in student accom paniment, and found to be acceptable for the study.

Ethical consideration
• Permission to conduct the study in the hospital concerned was obtained from the Department of Health.
Furthermore, letters requesting permission to conduct the study were written to the Chief Medical Superin tendent and Deputy Director of the hospital.
• Verbal consent was also obtained from all participants before conducting the study, explaining the purpose of the study and conditions of participation.
• Confidentiality of information and anonymity was guaranteed, since the information was concerned with their education, training and work situation.

Data analysis and findings
A content analysis of data was done manually by means of descriptive statistics.

Demographic data
Ages were considered to be important because it might influ-this study are concerned nurse preceptors and professional nurses were seemingly educationally well-prepared to perform their roles and functions of accompanying student nurses in clinical areas.
From the above statistics it is clear that the sample contained diploma student nurses who were of different levels o f educa-

Employment history Employment history of nurse preceptors
It was found that 31,25% (5) nurse preceptors were em ployed at the capacity of professional nurses, 37,15% (6) were senior professional nurses and 31,25% (5) were chief professional nurses.Besides doing clinical teaching nurse preceptors were also involved in ward administration, and patient care since they were employed at senior levels and were in charge of wards.This situation might hinder their function of clinical teaching.Only 31,25% (5) were ordinary professional nurses, which would be an advantage in contributing effectively to student accompaniment.

Employment history of professional nurses
Only 12,5% (5) o f the professional nurses were employed as senior professional nurses in charge of the Units, another 12,5% (5) were chief professional nurses also in charge and only 75% (30) were em ployed as ordinary professional nurses.From these findings it could be said that most of professional nurses could contribute significantly to student accom paniment since they were not in senior positions as compared to only 31,25% (5) nurse preceptors who were also not in senior positions.
The rest o f nurse preceptors in senior positions 68,75% (11) could be prevented from doing proper student accompaniment because o f m ultidimensional roles they perform.Proper stu dent accompaniment can be done by a professional nurse who is not in charge of a Unit because she has more time to do so.
If the professional nurse is in charge and at the same time is expected to act as a nurse preceptor, teaching student nurses, she will fail to perform all these duties properly because of a heavy workload.However Booyens (1993:272) argues that the workload of nurse preceptors should be reasonable in order to allow them sufficient time to perform their roles and functions.
For good precentorship nurse preceptors should have at least five (5) years or more experience for effectiveness (see figure 1).Burke (1994) cited in Quinn (1997:188) sees a nurse precep tor as an experienced nurse who is attached to students for a specified time-span or experience.

Experience of professional nurses in years
Findings revealed that 12,5% (5) professional nurses had 1 year experience, 25 % (10)had2-3years and 61,5 % (25) had 4-5 years experience as professional nurses.This could be a great advantage in student accompaniment because most of them were more experienced.

Number of student nurses supervised by nurse preceptors and professional nurses
Nurse preceptors were asked to mention the number o f stu dent nurses they managed to supervise per day in clinical ar eas.
Figure 2 revealed that 50% (8) nurse preceptors supervised 1 2 student nurses, 25% (4) supervised 3-4,18,5% (3) supervised 5-6 students and 6,5% (1) supervised 7 and above student nurses.M ost nurse preceptors managed to supervise only 1 2 student nurses per day out of 10 allocated including those doing a bridging course.This is not enough because each student nurse allocated in the Unit should be supervised daily for effectiveness.It means that not all student nurses are su pervised which is a problem.Nurse preceptors indicated that they are unable to supervise more than that because of many roles that they are responsible for, besides clinical teaching like administration of the Unit and patient care.The nurse preceptors who managed to supervise 3-7 student nurses per day were forced to supervise as many students as possible because of high numbers.They found this to be very strenu ous as they were also involved in m anagement duties and pa tient care.Burke (1994) cited in Quinn (1995:188) suggested that each student nurse is supposed to be attached to the preceptor for relatively long periods of time, such as a day or a week.
Professional nurses working in the Units were also asked to mention the number of student nurses they supervise per day.Findings revealed that the majority 87,5% (35) were unable to supervise student nurses because o f heavy workloads and the remaining 12,5% (5) indicated that they managed to supervise only 1 student nurse per day.It means that the rest of student nurses are expected to be supervised by nurse preceptors only.This is not fair because each and every registered nurse work ing in clinical areas has a teaching function of student nurses.They should all participate actively.

Roles played by nurse preceptors and professional nurses in student accompaniment
W hen the nurse preceptors were asked to identify the roles they play in student accompaniment, they mentioned the fol lowing: • Orientation of new student nurses in the Unit Professional nurses were also asked to identify roles they play in student accompaniment.The few professional nurses that m entioned that they are able to accompany student nurses mentioned the following roles and functions: • Demonstration of procedures • Support and encouragement when necessary • solution of problems experienced by student nurses in the clinical areas From the above findings it was clear that nurse preceptors are playing a larger role in student accompaniment as compared to professional nurses.

Categories of professional nurse contributing most in student accompaniment
Student nurses were asked to identify the categories of profes sional nurses who contributed most to their accompaniment by selecting from nurse preceptors, professional nurses work-fied by student nurses: that nurse preceptors are of great value and that they appreci ated all the help provided to student nurses by: • Seventy student nurses (87,5%) identified nurse pre ceptors as being the most helpful.
• Six (7,5%) of student nurses identified professional nurses 4 (5%) identified the clinical instructors and no student mentioned nurse educators as contributing to student accompaniment (see figure 3).It is obvious from these findings that nurse preceptors are playing a major role in student accompaniment (87,5%) as compared to other professional nurses.

Contributions of nurse preceptors in student accompaniment as perceived by student nurses
The following contributions o f nurse preceptors were identi- • acting as resource people for student nurses • acting as role models for student nurses • demonstrating all the procedures and many more con tributions In contrast French et al. (1989) in Mashaba and Brink (1994:128) stated that student nurses have reported that the most valued support in nursing practicum is that o f peers with qualified practitioners a less effective option and School o f Nursing staff the least effective option.This information confirms that student nurses need somebody who is always with them in clinical areas for help.

Problems encountered in clinical areas
The professional nurses, preceptors and student nurses were asked to m ention the problem s they experience in the clinical areas.The following problem s were identified by each cat egory.
Problems experienced by professional nurses • Sometimes there is poor communication between col lege staff and service staff and between the nurse pre ceptors and professional nurses.
• Lack of clear job descriptions concerning their roles in student accompaniment.Booyens (1992:272) em phasised a written description of responsibilities with regard to selecting learning experiences and supervis • Lack of in-service education to update their knowl edge and skills.Mellish and Lock (1992:14) pointed out that nurse managers should provide in-service edu cation to nurse preceptors for effectiveness.
• Lack of frequent meetings between college staff and service staff for discussion of problems they encounter in student accompaniment.
• Changing of shifts to do night duty which results in the neglect of teaching o f student nurses.
• Nobody relieves them when they are off-duty and on leave.
• Expected to provide clinical teaching, management of the Unit and patient care at the same time, resulting in failure to concentrate on student accompaniment.Ac cording to Collins (1988:9) nurse preceptors need to rotate less, to become less of an all-rounder, to be come greater specialists in their Units, so that they have more pride in their Units, more confidence in their knowledge and an improved attitude towards clinical teaching.
Problems experienced by student nurses in the clinical areas

87.5%
Only one category of professional nurse is interested in supervising them namely the nurse preceptor, others are always busy showing no interest in them.
Sometimes they feel exploited because they act as reliefs when other catego ries of staff are absent from work.
All the above problems mentioned by nurse pre ceptors, professional nurses and student nurses need to be looked into and solved promptly for proper student accompaniment.

Discussion
The findings o f this research revealed that clinical instruction was mostly done by nurse preceptors rather than other profes sional nurses, and that during their absence no active clinical teaching took place since nobody relieved them.Student nurses and professional nurses found nurse preceptors to con tribute to the growth and developm ent of student nurses.Pro fessional nurses in the clinical areas were found not to be ac tively involved in clinical teaching of student nurses.
Both the professional nurses and the student nurses identified the following roles and functions of the preceptors: Nurse preceptors identified the following problems as experi enced in clinical areas about student accompaniment: • Preceptors stated that they are unable to accompany many student nurses per day since there is only one preceptor per Unit, while there are about ten and more student in each Unit.
• There seems to be a general lack o f in-service educa tion programmes planned for nurse preceptors to up date their knowledge and skills.
The abovementioned problems experienced by nurse precep tors in student accompaniment need to be solves promptly by senior nurse managers and senior nurse educators in order for them to perform their roles and functions effectively.

Recommendations
The results of this study allow us to come forward with several recommendations for improving the functioning of nurse pre ceptors.Nurse preceptors should be allocated to the Units solely for clinical teaching purposes.They should under take minimal patient care and administration of the Units, not to be allocated on night duty and not to be placed in charge of the Units for continuity of student teaching and proper supervision.W hen on leave, should be relieved by other professional nurses.
Each Unit should have less than 10 student nurses al located because there is only one nurse preceptor allocated in each Unit for effective student accom pa niment, since she will try to accompany as many of them as possible if they are less in numbers.
Nurse preceptors experienced many problems in the clinical areas and there are no meetings to discuss these problems.
Lack of resources for demonstration of procedures.
Lack of clear job descriptions concerning their roles in student accompaniment.
Nurse preceptors do night duty during which time no active student accom panim ent takes place because nobody relieves them.
Work overload and shortage of nurse preceptors.
Professional nurses allocated in the Units, should par take actively in clinical teaching o f student nurses in the absence of nurse preceptors to fill the gaps in or der to improve the present lack of student accom pani ment.
If possible, regular meetings should be held by nurse managers, college staff and nurse preceptors to dis cuss problems experienced by nurse preceptors and improve work relationships in the workplace.
Regular in-service education programmes should be provided by nurse educators for nurse preceptors in order to maintain effectiveness in clinical teaching.
Nurse preceptors should be provided with clearly de fined objectives indicating the nature and extent of stu dent learning needs in a particular Unit.
Clear job descriptions should be provided for nurse preceptors concerning their roles and functions in stu dent accompaniment.
Even those hospitals that are not using nurse precep tors for student accompaniment should consider them because of their value in student accompaniment.

Conclusions
The study revealed that nurse preceptors are playing the most important role in student accompaniment as compared to other professional nurses.
in student accompaniment, and problems they experienced in the accom panim ent of student nurses.

Figure
Figure 1 : Experience of nurse preceptors in years

•
Demonstration of procedures • Assessment and evaluation o f performances • Provision of clinical teaching as a whole like correlat ing theory to practice • Support and encouragement Figure 2: Number of student nurses supervised by nurse preceptors per day

Figure 3 :
Figure 3: Most important category of professionals contributing most in student accompaniment

Table 2 :
Educational qualifications of nurse preceptors and professional nurses

Table 3 :
Level of education and training of student nurses Another finding is that during their ab sence no active clinical teaching takes place.Proper utilization of nurse preceptors can solve the present problem of poor / lack of student accom panim ent in the clinical areas.REILLY, D E & O ER M A N , M H 1992: Clinical teaching in nursing education.National League for nursing: New York.SANC 1986: Regulations related to the approval of and the minimum requirements for the education and training of a nurse (General, Psychiatry and Community) and midwife leading to registration Regulations R425 in terms of the Nursing Act 50 of 1978 as amended.SANC 1992: The philosophy and policy of the South African Nursing Council with regard to professional nursing educa tion.Established under the Nursing Act 50,1978 as amended.TANNER, CA 1996: Evaluation of clinical com petency.Jour nal of nursing education.35 (2):51-53.TR O SK IE , R; GUWA, SM & BO O YENS, SW 1998: Contri bution of the Unit managers to the training of student nurses in the Cape Peninsula.Curationis.21(4):24-28.