A partnership approach to the preparation of preceptors.

The role of nurse preceptor is critical to the successful integration of nursing students into the profession. Collaborative, partnership-based learning between beginning and more experienced nurses is central to this role. This article describes a targeted course for registered nurses designed to increase their knowledge and skills for preceptoring and achieve attitudinal changes to enhance the student/RN learning relationship in the clinical workplace. The course development and participation experience is discussed in relation to action learning as a model for nurse professional development. Prospects for extended and more formalized application of action learning in nursing and nurse education are discussed.