Most nurses are asked to precept before anyone has taught them how to teach. On the recent nursing free CE podcast, host Dr. McKenzie Butler asked her guest how many nurses were trained to be a preceptor. Guest Meg Harrell, a nurse, educator, and the creator behind the popular Nurse Meg site, answered “never.” The new nurse just follows you around for hours. If you’re a new nurse preceptor, the question always boils down to where to begin. Harrell offered a short, ordered foundation. This guide covers that order, how to teach communication, and how to keep a new nurse from burning out in the first year.
How to be a good preceptor: Start with four basics
Harrell recommends that anyone training a new nurse on a unit cover these first, in this order:
- Where everything is and how to get in. That includes supply rooms and the places that need codes or badge access. Emergencies are a bad time to learn where things are.
- How the unit communicates. Is it a secure messaging app, text through the electronic health record, or something else? Show the new nurse the channel they will use to reach colleagues.
- Time management. Explain how the shift is paced and how to decide what to do first, what to delegate, and what to defer.
- Report. Show how to give and receive handoff and what the unit expects to hear.
The goal, in her words, is for the new nurse to feel like “I kind of know what I’m doing, I can navigate this, I’m going to be okay on this floor.” Everything else builds on that footing, which is why it comes first.
How to precept a new nurse in communication
Harrell says nursing school rarely teaches how to speak to patients, families, providers, and other departments, so communication is a section in every program she builds. She teaches with scripts, including:
- How to call a provider, spoken as a literal script
- What to say when a family member asks for an update on a loved one
- What the family is usually looking for, and what a nurse cannot say
Scripts matter most for quieter nurses. Harrell notes that many introverts assume nursing is too people-heavy. With a script, calling another department, giving report, or talking to a scared or angry patient becomes learnable. A preceptor can model a call, then have the new nurse make the next one with the script in hand. Note: If your facility uses a structured format such as SBAR for provider calls, teach that format first.
The point is to spare the new nurse the trial-and-error Harrell went through in her own first years, when she made mistakes and learned only after the fact.
Related CE course for nurses: Effective Communication in Healthcare
Teach in a way the new nurse can see
Harrell describes herself as a hands-on, visual learner and says that many new nurses are the same. Her tools reflect it: checklists, a report sheet, and a shift timeline that can be marked off as the day goes on. A preceptor can do the same by writing the first week’s priorities on one page, walking through a patient’s day on paper, or letting the new nurse mark tasks off as they go.
She also points to a broader shift among new nurses: more technology, more use of apps and videos for help, and more people looking beyond their school for resources and peers. Treat that as a support, not a problem. Harrell recalls watching about seven videos before her first wound vac admission. The lesson she draws is that outside resources fill gaps. Preceptors can help new nurses tell good ones from poor ones.
Build a team habit: Look for who’s drowning
Harrell’s advice to new nurses is also advice for preceptors to model. When there is a free moment, look for a colleague who is overwhelmed and help them. If everyone does it, she says, it becomes the unit standard, and the unit feels like a team. Encourage new nurses to find their people, whether on the unit, in nursing groups, or online.
Watch for new nurse burnout
Preceptors are often the first to see a new nurse struggling. Harrell’s guidance for new grads can serve as a checklist for those conversations:
- Set limits on extra shifts. She notes that the nurse who denies themselves and picks up every extra shift is often the one management rewards. Her advice is not to pick up extra shifts every week.
- Treat mental health like physical health. In her words, it matters as much as eating a vegetable or drinking water. Nursing means seeing very hard moments, and even good news can be overwhelming.
- Use a clock-out ritual. Harrell imagines swiping her badge as a memory eraser that leaves the shift behind. She then walks out, sits in her car for a five-minute meditation before driving, and if the shift was rough, checks in with a family member, friend, or fellow nurse so she doesn’t carry it into her home.
These steps are not a substitute for professional support. A preceptor who sees signs of serious distress should point the new nurse toward the employee assistance program or other resources their employer offers.
A first-week checklist for preceptors
- Tour the unit, including every place that needs a code or badge
- Show how colleagues, providers, and other departments are reached
- Give the new nurse a one-page outline of the shift and a report sheet to fill in
- Demonstrate a provider call and a family update, then have the new nurse try one
- Point out who to ask for help and when to ask
- Check in on how the new nurse is doing outside the tasks
Bottom line
Precepting is a skill that’s rarely taught, but it can start simply. Orient, show how to communicate, set up time management, and make the report repeatable. Then watch the person as well as the work. A new nurse who feels competent and supported is more likely to stay in the profession.
Hear Harrell’s full conversation, including her advice for early-career nurses, in the new podcast episode here.
For the nurse who wants more learning options, explore continuing education for nurses from Elite Learning.
