The One-to-One Relationship: Is it Really Key to an Effective Preceptorship Experience? A Review of the Literature

Currently, considerable focus is directed at improving clinical experiences for nursing students, with emphasis placed on adequate support and supervision for the purpose of creating competent and safe beginning practitioners. Preceptors play a vital role in supporting, teaching, supervising and assessing students in clinical settings as they transition to the graduate nurse role. Intrinsic to this model is the assumption that the one-to-one relationship provides the most effective mechanism for learning. With the current Registered Nurses (RN) shortage, among other factors, the one-to-one relationship may not be feasible or as advantageous to the student. Thus, nurse educators need to carefully assess how this relationship is configured and maintained to assist them in fostering its evolution. In this review of the literature, the authors explore the assumption that a one-to-one relationship in the preceptorship experience fosters a rich and successful learning environment, and implications for nursing education, practice and research are outlined.