Factors influencing preceptor nurses' clinical teaching behavior: A cross-sectional study

Aim: This study identified significant factors affecting clinical teaching behavior among South Korean preceptor nurses.

Background: Preceptor nurses create a positive environment that helps new graduate nurses translate theoretical learning to clinical practice, facilitates their professional development, and increases their retention intention. However, few studies on preceptors' clinical teaching behavior, critical reflection competence, and clinical reasoning capabilities exist, and no studies have examined preceptor-preceptee work-ratios. We ascertained the critical reflection competence, clinical reasoning ability, and recognition of the importance of patient safety management of preceptor nurses, and analyzed the factors influencing their clinical teaching behavior.

Study design: The study used a cross-sectional design.

Methods: Participants included 216 preceptor nurses in Seoul, Republic of Korea, who responded to an online questionnaire based on the Critical Reflection Competency Scale, Nurse Clinical Reasoning Scale, Perception of Importance of Patient Safety Management Scale, and Clinical Teaching Behavior Inventory. Collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, an independent t-test, one-way ANOVA, Scheffé's test, Pearson's correlation coefficient, and hierarchical multiple regression using IBM SPSS Statistics 29.0.

Results: Factors influencing clinical teaching behavior included the perception of importance of patient safety management (β = 0.35, p < .001), clinical reasoning (β = 0.34, p < .001), critical reflection (β = 0.17, p = .007), preceptor nurses' workload reduction (β = 0.12, p = .005), and the preceptor-preceptee work-match ratio of schedule alignment in shift rotations (β = 0.09, p = .042). These factors accounted for 66.7 % of the variance in preceptors' clinical teaching behavior (F = 48.81, p < .001).

Conclusion: We identified the perceptions of the importance of patient safety management, clinical reasoning competence, critical reflection competence, preceptor nurses' workload reduction, and the preceptor-preceptee work-match ratio as significant factors influencing preceptors' clinical teaching behavior. Our findings have implications for the development of training programs for nurses preparing for preceptorship to enhance their critical reflection capacity, competence in clinical reasoning, and perception of the importance of patient safety management. We recommend creating an organizational plan to alleviate the burden on preceptor nurses and establishing standardized protocols for preceptorship programs.

Tweetable abstract: Our cross-sectional study identified significant factors affecting the clinical teaching behavior of Korean preceptor nurses in hospitals.