5 Best Practices for Building a Successful Preceptor Program: A Key to Staff Retention

Home health agencies depend on skilled preceptors to guide new clinicians through the challenges of the field, helping them translate classroom knowledge into competent, compassionate patient care. Yet precepting is often treated as an informal add-on to an already demanding workload, which can lead to burnout.

Turnover in home health currently exceeds 79 percent,¹ and nearly 30 percent of preceptors experience burnout.² Preceptors who aren’t given clear expectations, proper training, or enough time to fulfill their duties can quickly become overwhelmed, which in turn disrupts onboarding and impacts nurse morale and retention.

Supporting preceptors with the right training and tools isn’t just good for them—it benefits your entire agency. Agencies with formalized preceptor programs retain both preceptors and new hires at higher rates.

Let’s take a look at five best practices for helping preceptors succeed in their role.

Establish Clear Preceptor Role Expectations

Clearly define what makes the preceptor role unique within your organization, and create job descriptions that outline their unique expectations and responsibilities. Ensure that other staff members, including schedulers, supervisors, and new hires, understand how preceptors fit into the care team. Be sure to scale back preceptors’ patient load if necessary to allow for their additional mentorship duties.

When expectations are vague or time is too tight, preceptors can feel isolated, unsupported, and stressed, which increases the chance of burnout.

Identify the Right Preceptors

Strong preceptors need more than clinical expertise. When selecting preceptors, use formal evaluation tools to assess communication, teaching, time management, and critical thinking skills, along with interest in the role. This helps ensure that those tasked with mentoring also have the aptitude and desire to succeed.

Provide Structured, Engaging Training

Too often, preceptors are expected to simply “figure it out” on their own. Instead, offer structured training in communication and feedback strategies, teaching methods, conflict resolution, and planning. Incorporate adult learning principles such as flexible formats, self-directed modules, and opportunities to connect training to real-world challenges. These strategies not only improve preceptor effectiveness but also build confidence from day one.

Create Development Pathways and Recognition

Position precepting as a long-term professional pathway rather than a temporary assignment. Establish clear levels for preceptorship, with defined criteria for advancement—such as improving new hire retention or achieving strong clinical outcomes—and align each level with targeted continuing education opportunities. Acknowledge and celebrate preceptors’ contributions to foster pride, satisfaction, and long-term engagement in the role.

Make Preceptor Tasks Easier with the Right Tools

Administrative burden is one of the biggest contributors to preceptor burnout. Streamlining their daily workload frees them to focus on supporting new hires rather than chasing paper checklists or struggling to track progress. Efficient, user-friendly tools like digital skills checklists can replace error-prone paper checklists with fully customizable, trackable digital competency programs, reducing friction and giving preceptors time back in their day.

How Medbridge Helps

Medbridge Skills offers a fully digital platform that allows agencies to: 

• Streamline onboarding, reviews, and competency sign-offs

• Build and customize skills programs for each discipline

• Track completion and generate reports automatically

• Improve efficiency so preceptors can spend more time mentoring

In addition, our Mentoring in Action: Essential Skills for Home Health Preceptors certificate program equips preceptors with evidence-based strategies to enhance communication, teaching, feedback, and time management. Together, these tools help agencies build confident preceptors and resilient onboarding programs.

Invest in Your Preceptors—and Your Agency’s Future

Strong preceptors are the foundation of a strong team. By giving them the support, structured training, and targeted tools they need, you can reduce turnover, improve retention, and empower new hires to deliver exceptional care from day one.

Ready to learn more? Watch our free on-demand webinar Building Your Dream Team: A Blueprint for a Successful Preceptor Program to explore how your agency can design and sustain a preceptor program that lasts. 

References

1. https://homehealthcarenews.com/2024/07/home-cares-industry-wide-turnover-rate-reaches-nearly-80/

2. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38501818/