Education is challenged nowadays with the important for survival goal of facilitating change and learning. New meanings are now attributed to education such as learning how to learn rather than acquiring new knowledge (Rogers, 1983). In a constantly changing situation, where reliance on static knowledge does not make sense anymore, it is important to help students to develop autonomous ways of ...

Thirty years ago, there would not have been a special issue on preceptorship and mentorship. Given the rise and consequent research interest in these two practices in nursing, numerous scholarly papers are being published. This particular special edition will be highly relevant to those who participate in preceptorship or mentorship programs from those who coordinate them to the students or gra...

Research has shown that while preceptorship offers a reality-oriented learning environment and facilitates competence of students, there are inherent rewards and stressors associated with the experience. Students and preceptors can be from different generations, and as such, they may often come to the learning space with differing values and expectations. The nature of the preceptorship experie...

Executing an effective clinical practicum experience for distance learners requires systems to be in place to ensure that all students receive a quality clinical experience and meet course and program objectives. Key to achieving these successful outcomes is recognizing and overcoming the challenges involved in designing graduate practica for Master of Science in nursing candidates. A systemati...

INTRODUCTION 'Belonging' is a universal characteristic of human beings and is a basic human need. Rural nurses describe the nature of their practice as being embedded in working as a team where belonging is central to the success of the team and the individual nurse. As a result they form close professional and personal ties. The challenge for nursing students is to develop a sense of belonging...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Educators should document students' clinical skills experience and whether curriculum and other course changes impact this experience. We wanted to determine the factors associated with students' clinical skills experience during their third-year family medicine preceptorship. METHODS We conducted an observational study of 1,419 third-year students at the University ...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Our objective was to describe and evaluate an educational intervention for teaching preclinical medical students enrolled in a family medicine preceptorship to use evidence-based medicine (EBM) techniques. METHODS In a brief workshop, 94 preclinical students, enrolled in a 4?week family medicine preceptorship, learned an EBM approach to clinical decision making. Stud...

BACKGROUND Family medicine preceptorships are underused opportunities for learning smoking cessation counseling skills. To prepare students for their future roles in preventing health problems in patients who use tobacco, we implemented a patient-centered instructional module within the elective Texas Statewide Family Practice Preceptorship Program. METHODS Seventy-eight preclinical medical s...