Amid record census levels and staffing vacancies, precepting over the past year has been more challenging than ever. It’s through the collective teamwork of our entire preceptor team that the NICU has experienced a dramatic impact on our unit turnover, engagement, and morale. In lieu of identifying just one preceptor to recognize, I’d like to nominate the NICU Preceptor Team, led by Orientation Coordinators, Lauren Miller and Margaret (Meg) Wuest, for this award.

Faced with a nursing turnover rate of 32% at its peak, the NICU Preceptor Team was put to the test to orient 35 RNs over the course of one year; that’s 1/3 of our entire nursing team. 35 preceptors assumed “primary preceptor” responsibilities and oriented new hires across the full range of prior nursing experience – from new graduate nurses and nurses with 1—2 years of adult medical-surgical experience to nurses with 20+ years of prior NICU experience.

Throughout this challenging onboarding period, the NICU preceptor team supported, educated, mentored, and coached our new hires to become independent and skilled NICU nurses. Primary preceptors participated in weekly orientation check-in meetings, provided clinical coaching and constructive feedback as needed, and communicated orientee strengths/areas of continued development during formal preceptor handoffs. With their support through 16,000+ hours of precepted time, the NICU experienced a decrease in turnover from 32% to 6%, a vacancy rate decline from 15% to 0%, and an increase in unit engagement from a score of 3.58 to 3.94.

It’s not just the quantity of orientees but the high-quality preceptorship this team provided that’s impressive. In the post-orientation survey, 98% of respondents stated they "agree" or "strongly agree" to statements including, "my preceptor communicated effectively with me," "my preceptor was emotionally supportive to me," "my preceptor served as a role model to me," and "my preceptor demonstrated clinical competence and was knowledgeable about disease processes and nursing care of patients."

The NICU Preceptor Team is comprised of clinical leaders who continue the support and encouragement long after the orientation period ends. They are our Charge Nurses, formal Mentors, and resource nurses, whose approachability, clinical guidance, and positivity through this very tumultuous time should be recognized and celebrated.