Discuss the Preceptorship Program Presented in This Article, in Terms of the Program and Performance Assessment Approach Advocated by Cascio

Question 1: Discuss the preceptorship program presented in this article, in terms of the program and performance assessment approach advocated by Cascio.

Having a sound clinical experience and support is critical for the success of any nurse, in order to succeed. The purpose of a nursing preceptorship program is to place new nurses who are considered novice with experienced professional nurses. During this time the novice and the experienced nurse have the opportunity to develop a relationship. In addition the novice has a chance to have one on one time with an experienced nurse. This will allow the novice the opportunity to ask questions and receive valuable feedback regarding their performance, time management and the best ways to deliver patient care.

In reviewing the article, the preceptorship programme was developed to outline the roles and responsibilities of the preceptors in leading new inexperienced nurses (Lee, Tzeng, Lin & Yeh, 2009). The goal was to develop an excellent program that would help mentor new nurses, by providing them with support and the knowledge of more experienced nurses, in hopes of reducing the high turnover that have been seen for many years in the hospital environment.

Having high turnover in a hospital setting can cause staffing problems and help aid in patients receiving poor quality of care (Hockenberry & Becker, 2016). Therefore, it is vital to the success of any hospital to have a quality training program. Cascio, discuss several training trends that go hand in hand with the preceptorship program implemented in the article. The trend of needing to maintain high levels of talent is relevant. As services become more complex and evolve, it is going to be important to have the ability to solve problems and build relationships and work together to solve problems (Cascio, pg. 291, 2013). Teams was another trend that was relevant to this article as the more experienced nurses worked with the new nurses as a team, learning and offering their knowledge and skill set (Cascio, pg. 292, 2013). This allowed for the success of the less experienced nurses, hospital and more importantly the patients they will assist.

In terms of the assessing the training needs and designing a training program, this was a success. Cascio, discussed the 3 phases for training; the assessment phase, the training and development phase and the evaluation phase. An assessment was completed and it was determined there was high turnover, which added to the cost of orientation and training over the years and can now cost between $20,000 to $50,000 (Lee, Tzeng, Lin & Yeh, 2009). In this assessment it was also determined what minimum qualifications a nurse must have, in order to be considered for the preceptorship programme. Some of those qualifications included a minimum if two years’ experience as a RN with a license and the recommendation from the nurse manager of the working