Why clinicians precept: the rewards of teaching

Paid for your time

With Preceptorate you set your rate within our network’s range for your specialty, and you see the pay for every student before you accept. Pay comes per block of precepting hours, by Zelle or direct deposit, with every payment on record in your portal.

Because you choose the students, the terms and whether you precept in person, virtually or both, precepting fits around your practice rather than the other way round.

Credit toward your certification

Every major certifying board for advanced practice clinicians recognizes precepting in some form:

• ANCC: a minimum of 120 preceptor hours completes one of the eight professional development categories for renewal.
• AANPCB: up to 120 precepting hours convert into as many as 25 non-pharmacology continuing education hours.
• AMCB: 90 or more hours precepting a student from an ACME-accredited midwifery program count for up to 10 contact hours, with or without payment.
• AACN Certification Corporation (ACNPC-AG): at least 80 hours a year of precepting graduate APRN students earns renewal points.
• AAPA: practicing PAs earn 2 Category 1 CME credits per student for each 40-hour week of clinical teaching, through accredited PA programs.

A sharper practice

Explaining your reasoning to a student makes you check it. Preceptors often say a student’s questions sent them back to a guideline they had not opened in years, or put words to a judgment they had made by instinct. Teaching models like the One-Minute Preceptor and SNAPPS build that reflection into every case.

Students also bring what they learned in class this term: the newest guidelines, a fresh look at a familiar problem, and plenty of questions.

Shaping your profession

Every nurse practitioner, physician assistant, nurse-midwife, counselor, social worker and behavior analyst was taught by someone already in practice. The habits you show a student, how you listen, how you document, how you talk to a worried family, travel with them into every practice they join.

Many preceptors also find their next colleague this way. A student who has spent a rotation in your practice already knows your patients, your systems and your standards.

Teaching in your own field

You precept students in your own field and population focus: a family nurse practitioner precepts FNP students, a psychiatric-mental health NP precepts PMHNP students, a counselor supervises counseling students. The cases are the ones you already see, and the student learns them your way, from how you take a history to how you close a visit.

Precepting on your terms

Preceptorate is built so that precepting fits a working clinician’s life:

• You choose in person, virtually or both.
• You meet each student on a short call first, and decide after it.
• You see the hours and the pay before you accept.
• Our team prepares the affiliation agreement, the school’s forms and the evaluation schedule.
• For virtual precepting, our team runs the mentorship sessions, and you review and sign off the hours.

Moments that make precepting worthwhile

Ask preceptors what they enjoy and the answers are rarely about paperwork. They are moments like these:

• The day a student’s case presentation comes out clear, organized and right.
• A patient thanking the student by name.
• A student catching a finding you would have wanted them to catch.
• Hearing that a former student passed their boards, or landed their first job.
• Seeing your own way of caring for patients carried into a new practice.

Getting started takes a minute

With Preceptorate, starting is short and simple:

1. 1ApplyYour specialty, your state and how you would like to precept.
2. 2Hear from your recruitment managerBy text or email, with your link.
3. 3Create your accountA one-minute form and the preceptor agreement.
4. 4License verifiedWe confirm your license with the state board.
5. 5Meet your first studentA short call, and you decide after it.

Precepting through a career

Precepting fits every stage of a clinical career. A few years after certification, it is a way to consolidate what you know by teaching it. Mid-career, it keeps practice fresh and builds the colleagues your practice will hire. Later on, it is how decades of judgment are passed to the next generation. Many clinicians precept for years, a student or two a term, adjusting the pace as their own practice changes.

With Preceptorate you can pause between terms, change between in-person and virtual precepting, or add a specialty as your certifications grow.

Questions