Alberta David Nsemo*, Odei-Opoku, Hannah Durowaa, Daisy Afra Lumour, Josephine Opokua Osei, Juliet Dwomoh and Evita Ama Serwah

Department of Nursing Science, Garden City University College, Kenyase, Kumasi, Ghana (on Sabbatical); University of Calabar, Calabar, Nigeria

*Corresponding Author: Alberta David Nsemo, Department of Nursing Science, Garden City University College, Kenyase, Kumasi, Ghana (on Sabbatical); University of Calabar, Calabar, Nigeria.

Received: April 06, 2022; Published: April 26, 2022

Abstract

Midwifery is a practice-based discipline, therefore learning experiences in the clinical setting are integral to the preparation of registered midwives. Preceptors are experienced nurses and midwives who work in a variety of clinical and academic settings. They are assigned to a new or a novice midwife to guide them through an orientation process and a transition to their new role. Hence, their primary responsibility to the midwifery student in the clinical setting is to provide meaningful and relevant learning experiences. This study sought to examine student midwives' knowledge and perspectives of the role of the preceptor as well as the challenges faced by the students in Koforidua and St. Patricks Nursing and Midwifery Training Colleges, Eastern and Ashanti Regions of Ghana. Social learning theory was used to guide the study. The study utilized the descriptive survey design with simple random sampling to get information from 269 second and third-year midwifery students from both schools using a structured questionnaire. Data was analysed using the SPSS version 22 and presented in frequency tables and Bar charts. The study findings revealed the majority of midwifery students (60.0%) have knowledge of the preceptorship and encounters preceptors during their clinical work. Most of them (57.3%) perceived that it is the role of a preceptor to help them bridge the gap between classroom and clinical areas. Majority (68.8%) of the student midwives expectations of their preceptors was to help them develop midwifery skills and knowledge. They however faced some challenges with the preceptors in the course of the clinical practice such as lack of student-preceptor relationship, unavailability and inaccessibility of some preceptors, inadequate time to spend with the preceptors and inadequate supervision form preceptors during clinical practice. The study concluded that preceptorship might be a new concept in midwifery education, it is a module that is known to most students and is perceived as an integral part of their training. Based on the findings, the recommendations included Training of more clinical preceptors on their roles for improvement of students' clinical learning outcome among others.

Keywords: Student Midwives; Preceptors; Preceptee; Preceptorship; Role; Clinical Practice; Midwifery; Perspectives; Challenges

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Citation

Citation: Alberta David Nsemo., et al. “The Role of Preceptors in Clinical Practice: Student Midwives' Knowledge, Perspectives and Challenges in Koforidua and St. Patricks Nursing and Midwifery Training Colleges, Eastern and Ashanti Regions of Ghana". Acta Scientific Women's Health 4.5 (2022): 48-60.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2022 Alberta David Nsemo., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.