Help Prepare Your Future Co-workers
Preceptors play a vital role in nursing education by enabling students to gain experience in real-world clinical settings.
What Does a Preceptor Do?
As coach, mentor, and supervisor, a preceptor provides support as the student learns to put what they learned in the classroom into practice. Our preceptors work with faculty at Cizik School of Nursing at UTHealth Houston to help teach and evaluate skills during our students’ clinical rotations. We maintain contracts with hundreds of clinical sites throughout the Houston area and Texas to give our students diverse and rigorous preparation to work in their respective health care settings.
Preceptors supervise students as agreed upon between the student, site, and school by semester. Preceptors model humanistic, holistic practice; critical thinking and professional behaviors; and use of evidence-based practice while assisting student advancement in patient care, time management, and transition to practice.
Undergraduate preceptors supervise one student at a time per clinical rotation, and no more than two students per semester. Review Cizik School of Nursing’s BSN preceptor guidelines for full details.
Graduate preceptors supervise students as agreed upon between the student, site, and school by semester. Review Cizik School of Nursing’s Graduate preceptor guidelines for full details.
Who Can be a Preceptor?
Nursing preceptors must have a current Texas RN licensure, and all preceptors must have an unencumbered license respective of their profession.
Undergraduate preceptors must have at least one year of experience as a registered nurse and Basic Life Saving certification. Cizik School of Nursing also requires a supervisor’s recommendation.
Graduate preceptor requirements vary by academic track:
- For nurse practitioner students, preceptors must have at least one year of experience as an APRN, MD, DO, PA, or CNM.
- For nursing leadership students, preceptors must have a master’s degree (such as MS/MSN, MBA, MHA, etc.) and serve in a leadership position within an organization.
- For nursing informatic students, preceptors must have a master’s degree (such as MS/MSN, MBA, MHA, etc.) and a minimum of five years of experience in an informatics role and serve in an informatics leadership position within an organization.
