Psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner student preceptorship: Perspectives on the clinical training

Abstract

As today’s health-service delivery continues to evolve and transform, keeping pace with the training needs of professionals entrusted to deliver quality, competent care is itself an evolutionary and multifaceted academic undertaking. In the United States, psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners (PMHNPs) have been evidenced as formative, effective, and necessary contributors to quality, cost- effective patient, family, and community-based mental health care across the lifespan. The education and certification processes for PMHNPs involve a comprehensive and rigorous combination of theoretical course-work and clinical practicum guided by the concepts and principles of the preceptorship model. The purpose of this paper is to use the available literature to discuss and gain insights into some clinical and educational perspectives influencing PMHNP students’ practice preparations within the context of the preceptorship-paradigmatic relationship. Along with adding to the literature, this paper could have important implications from the standpoint of the PMHNP student-faculty-preceptor model.