Rural clinician opinion on being a preceptor.

INTRODUCTION: This article reports the evaluation of the motivation and experiences of preceptors of health professional students in the Spencer Gulf Rural Health School (SGRHS) in South Australia. The aims for this evaluation were to establish: (1) What factors influenced the professional's decision to precept students? (2) Did preceptors report having adequate skills and preparation for preceptoring? (3) What were the variations in professional streams with regards to the factors and skills of the staff involved? (4) What were preceptors' overall perceptions of their role? Heeding the opinions of preceptors involved in such initiatives is an important part of ensuring the sustainability of the rural workforce initiatives such as SGRHS.

METHODS: A preceptor questionnaire was developed from the literature in 2002 and pilot tested twice. At the end of 2004, all 255 preceptors who had been involved with SGRHS placement programs were sent a paper questionnaire. 145 valid responses were received (58%). The data were analysed using SPSS, Excel and Xpro.

RESULTS: Respondent preceptors were drawn from medicine (n = 70), nursing (37), allied health (24), and other (14) backgrounds and had generally preceptored previously (133). Respondents had preceptored a total of 1007 students from medicine, nursing, allied health and other fields of study. Respondents had worked for either a very long time (> 15 years) or a short time (< 5 years) in rural areas. Respondents reported the factors which influenced their decision to precept were (in order): (1) I value my contribution to the growth in student's knowledge and skills; (2) Teaching allows me to promote rural health as a career option; (3) I enjoy the teaching/preceptor role; (4) Being a preceptor enhances my desire to keep up with recent health developments/literature; (5) I increase my time reviewing the basics of my clinical knowledge. There was significant interdisciplinary difference with nurses valuing their professional contribution more highly than doctors or allied health professionals. Preceptors' reports of their rural placement experiences reveal high agreement (99%) with the statement about the purposefulness of rural placements for providing students with the opportunity to see careers in rural practice in action, and most (93%) believed that they had adequate skills to precept and (91%) that the placement was an overall positive experience for the practice. Open-ended answers were coded and analysed to further understand these findings. Medical preceptors delighted in sharing youthful students' enthusiasm for learning while nurses most enjoyed encouraging students' understanding of rural health care. The principal preceptor problems related to time and associated issues, while doctors more than nurses and allied health professionals reported these issues.

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS: The SGRHS findings are consistent with world preceptor literature. To ensure sustainability of preceptors a number of areas need to be improved--notably recognition of loss of productivity; improvements to communication between sending institution and placement site; maintaining a multi-disciplinary approach to selecting preceptors based on the different 'world view' of the respondents; and, last, persisting with rural placements in acknowledgement that preceptors themselves agree that short observational placements allow students to see rural careers in action, which is the fundamental goal for rural placements.