This Preceptor Handbook is designed to provide both the preceptor and the student with an understanding of the roles and responsibilities in this collaborative effort. It includes information about the Graduate Nursing Program, role expectations, and tips for you as a preceptor. 

As a preceptor, you play a key role in not only direct supervision to ensure competent, safe completion of specific skills, but also in guiding the graduate nurse's development within the clinical learning environment to promote self-awareness and critical thinking.

Your support and guidance can prove beneficial for both the graduate student and clinical site and contributes to the next generation of advanced practice nurses and nurse leaders. The Nursing faculty are readily available to graduate students and their preceptors for consultation and assistance. Again, thank you for your support. If you require any further information, please feel free to contact us.

Preceptor Benefits

Preceptors may apply for status as a Clinical Affiliate Faculty member.  To apply, contact the Assistant to the Dean. 

At minimum, individuals who apply for Clinical Affiliate Faculty status will be considered if they are aligned with the SPU mission and have consistently contributed to the education of SPU Graduate Nursing students in ways such as:

• Precepting a minimum of one quarter per year
• Providing tutoring/mentoring for specific students
• Acting as a guest lecturer/lab faculty
• Writing case studies/unfolding cases

Benefits to affiliate faculty members may include:

• Invitation to School of Health Sciences events
• Access to SPU Library. (on-site and remote)
• Discounts for athletic and fine arts events on campus may also be available

Graduate Nursing Program

The Graduate Nursing Program prepares graduates to assume advanced practice and leadership roles in a variety of settings, in keeping with the University model of competence, character, and becoming people of wisdom. The aim is to foster the development of self-understanding, caring, collaboration, ethical thought and action, intellectual curiosity, critical thinking, and judgment, as well as the integration of Christian faith with scientific knowledge and clinical expertise.

Doctor of Nursing Practice Program Outcomes

1. Critically seek and appraise new knowledge from nursing, ethics, and other sciences to provide the basis for advanced nursing practice.
2. Actively engage in leadership and interdisciplinary collaborations aimed at improving healthcare delivery, care coordination, and policy.
3. Effectively lead and collaborate with health care teams to develop, implement, and evaluate healthcare organizations, systems, practice models, quality, and policy to improve outcomes for individuals and populations.
4. Effectively develop, implement, and evaluate evidence-based approaches to advance nursing and systems of health care delivery.
5. Advance the effective use of information systems and advanced technical resources to support care and improve health outcomes.
6. Provide, manage and evaluate care of individuals and populations using evidence-based concepts related to community, environmental, cultural and socioeconomic dimensions of health.
7. Demonstrate advanced levels of critical thinking, clinical reasoning, clinical judgment, systems thinking, and accountability in designing, delivering, and evaluating evidence-based care.