The preceptorship experience in the intergenerational context: a phenomenological study

• Author / Creator

  Foley, Vicki

• Preceptorship tends to be the teaching/learning method of choice for senior level nursing students engaging in clinical practice because it offers a reality-oriented learning context and fosters professional socialization into the culture of nursing. The pairing of a student with an experienced nurse is an approach to teaching/learning that promotes critical thinking, cultivates practical wisdom, and facilitates competence. In today’s nursing clinical practice settings, there can be up to four distinct generations (Veterans, Baby Boomers, Gen Xers, and Millennials) present and each generation brings its own values and expectations to the teaching/learning process. Exploring the nature of the preceptorship experience in this context is a significant and relevant topic for nursing education and practice. To date, a paucity of research is evident in this area. The purpose of this paper-based thesis is to explore nursing pedagogy in the intergenerational context and more specifically, to examine the preceptorship model of clinical teaching/learning within this context. I begin broadly in the first manuscript with an examination of nursing pedagogy through a generational lens and proffer that nurse educators should begin to engage in a critical discourse regarding the adequacy of current pedagogical practice in relation to meeting the needs and expectations of today’s students, the Millennial Generation. In the second manuscript, I narrow my focus to the preceptorship model of clinical teaching/learning and explore the state of knowledge as it relates to preceptorship in the intergenerational context. In the third manuscript, I explore the phenomenological research methodology with a particular focus on nursing knowledge development. In the fourth manuscript, I reveal the culmination of my dissertation process and report the findings of a phenomenological research study examining the preceptorship experience in the intergenerational context. For the current study, data were generated using unstructured interviews with a purposive sample of preceptors and students recruited from an undergraduate nursing program in eastern Canada. Overall their experience can be described as inclusive of three main themes: being affirmed, and being challenged, along a pedagogical journey.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Phenomenology
  • Preceptorship
  • Intergenerational

• Graduation date

  Fall 2011

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Doctor of Philosophy

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3J317

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.