My Leadership Smart Goals For New Nurse

As we begin our nursing career, it is vital to have an experienced preceptor to guide a new graduate nurse to becoming an accomplished and knowledgeable nurse. It just doesn’t take experience to make a good nurse preceptor but one that possesses qualities such as being patient, knowledgeable, give constructive feedback, and able to be a supportive role model. As stated by Korzon and Trimmer, “A supportive preceptorship relationship is a well-established primary support mechanism aimed at the successful integration of new nurse” (p.14). This statement doesn’t only apply to new nurses but nurses that are joining a new organization or a nursing specialty.

My leadership SMART goal is to create a preceptor team program in our current department. This SMART goal pertains to an Institute of Medicine’s core healthcare competency which is working in an interdisciplinary and/or interprofessional team but overall will provide competent quality patient care. Currently, I work in a day surgery department. Prior to working there, I had no operating room (OR) experience. The experience was overwhelming to say the least. There was so much to learn about positioning, equipment, and instruments used in surgeries. My preceptor was an experienced OR nurse but didn’t possess extra education as a preceptor. She was impersonal, short-tempered, and de-meaning to me in front of patients. There were many times that I went home crying and felt totally incompetent as a nurse. This is why this goal is truly important to me because it is personal, and I don’t want new nurse graduates or nurses without OR experience to go through what I did. “Preceptors guide nurses as they make transitions” and “the preceptor’s relationship with the new hire has been key to...

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...and teacher to new nurses.

I do believe in the importance of a preceptor program because as Raines stated, “Enhancing our understanding of nurse preceptors’ behaviors to create a caring relationship with the newly hired nurses is important for the profession and to the retention of nurses” (p.33). Nurse preceptors play a vital role in the retention of new nurses, and the proper training and education is necessary to preceptors that will be that vital role model. In the article written by Raines, there was a study done, and the results were that “Positive impact of the Preceptor of Excellence program was the opportunity for nurse preceptors to be recognized for their behavior and skills, to come together to reflect on the significance of their contributions, and to nurture self and others” (p.36). Preceptors set the path for the new nurses, and someday when they are