Precepting and mentoring needs of nursing faculty and clinical instructors: Fostering career development and community

A descriptive survey was conducted to describe (a) perceptions of precepting and mentoring at early-, mid-, and late-career phases and (b) the organization's support of department members' precepting and mentoring needs. Participants were nursing faculty and clinical instructors at a midwestern public university. The Measure of Precepting and Mentoring was developed for this study. Findings indicate that clinical instructors experience greater precepting and mentoring satisfaction than faculty and distance-site department members experience a higher level of satisfaction than main-campus department members. Faculty expressed the most dissatisfaction for late-career mentoring and organizational culture and outcomes. From the qualitative data, three themes emerged: (a) a need for precepting and mentoring that changes with time, (b) a lack of an organizational precepting and mentoring philosophy and supporting mechanisms, and (c) the feeling of together but separate. A model of precepting and mentoring emerged from our study.