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Finding enough preceptors, clinical instructors, and clinical space for both pre- and post-licensure students is only getting harder.

As one of seven UVA Health entities, the School enjoys proximity and access for students at UVA Health hospitals and clinics. But to satisfy its clinical practice needs, it still requires strategic approaches, especially in light of goal 1’s promise to transform educational offerings that meet the demands of the marketplace and students. 

Fewer preceptors and clinical practice spaces have created opportunities to build and strengthen the Mary Morton Parsons Simulation Learning Center, which, over the last decade, has dramatically expanded its capacity and offerings. The School's now four-year-old simulation collaborative established with UVA School of Medicine centralized efforts and offered even more learning spaces. In the last six months, four new simulation faculty have arrived, with two more positions to be filled, to run a growing array of practice scenarios for both pre- and post-licensure students, part of simulation director and assistant professor Ryne Ackard’s strategy to broaden experiences that count toward students’ required clinical hours of learning.

But there’s no replacement for preceptors and on-unit clinical rotations, which has meant associate dean Shelley Smith and program director Lynn Corbett are getting creative in how they recruit and retain preceptors: traveling to new sites to cultivate relationships, leaving behind “swag bags” that pitch the benefits and rewards of precepting, and honoring the preceptors they currently have. 

Where have they turned? In part, to alumni. And nurse practitioners like Hania Bushnaq-Aloul (MSN ’13), an acute care nurse practitioner who works at UVA’s Couric Cancer Center, are raising their hands to help. 

“I saw the email, and thought, ‘Oh, I’d like to do that,’” said Bushnaq-Aloul, whose NP-run unit cares for patients receiving stem cell transplants. “It’s wonderful to work with these young nurses, and ones that aren’t so young, to pass on our experiences. I mean, the curiosity they have, the energy, the sharp minds they have — and the fact that, when you precept, you’re also learning.” 

Noting that making space for practicing student on her unit is also a way to find “new blood” for open positions, Bushnaq-Aloul said precepting is a way to pay it forward, making sure newly graduated nurses have the support they need. “We’re here for you,” she said. 

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