Preceptorship: How We Upskill Our New Nurses

Our in-house preceptorship programme, accredited by the NMC, is designed for qualified nurses new to the nursing and midwifery register.
Its aim is to provide a structured period of transition to full nursing responsibilities at Colten Care with senior colleagues guiding, supervising and assessing practice.

Participants generally spend up to three months on a preceptorship, with supernumerary time for them to work through the various stages and grow their knowledge, skills and experience.

Ten team members from our homes completed the programme during the past year, with seven currently in the system and more to come during 2024.

Cephanie Keightley, Senior Clinical Trainer, is a registered nurse with over 30 years’ experience. She joined Colten Care in 2021, and she supports our preceptees with clinical skills.

“Our latest cohort are another impressive bunch,” says Cephanie.

“All completed the programme early with some absorbing the content like sponges and going on to run the floor within a short time of completing their preceptorship. Organising a preceptorship can take a lot of time from clinical areas but homes benefit, particularly from the support that a successful preceptee goes on to offer the Clinical Lead and other colleagues.

As well as receiving individually tailored one-to-one and group support from senior nurses, preceptees follow a dedicated preceptorship booklet produced by our Learning & Development Team.

The booklet sets out the policies governing what a Colten Care home does to care for its residents and covers all aspects of the transition from ‘novice’ to ‘expert’ nurse including essential tasks such as writing individual care plans.

Cephanie adds: “Our programme is an amazing opportunity for nurses to gain knowledge, skills, and competence. A preceptorship is all about embedding confidence, values and behaviours in a nurse to ensure they can provide effective resident-centred care.

“Whatever their route to Colten Care, I try to give preceptees a future vision of where they could be.” One of our 2023 preceptees, Mary Thomas, had worked at Abbey View in Sherborne as a Senior Care Lead since 2015.

A qualified hospital nurse in India, she needed to re-register to practise here even though she had worked in a care environment in the UK for eight years.

Mary, whose nickname at the home is Seena, completed all the necessary tests set by the NMC including clinical skills assessment.

The exams included questions about clinical practice and the attitudes required for safe and effective nursing in the UK.

Mary finally achieved her RGN PIN at the end of May 2023, completing our preceptorship programme in the months that followed.

“Everyone has been happy to support me,” she says. “Cephanie gave me all the training I needed, spending a lot of time with me to explain things, coming to see me at Abbey View to check my progress and discussing it with the Home Manager and Clinical Lead.

“They and other colleagues have been really supportive. I’m so appreciative of what people have done. “

“Ultimately, doing a preceptorship helps residents’ care because you have knowledge in more depth. “It’s also right to focus on the differences between nursing in an acute setting such as a hospital compared to a care home.

“In a hospital you may not see today’s patient the next day because they might be discharged or transferred to another ward, so you lose that connection.

“In a nursing home, especially a Colten Care one, you know the residents and how they want to be treated, you see them every day and their family talk to you.

“It’s a completely different level of attachment because you know them personally.”

You can find out more about a role as a care home nurse here.