Nursing and Advanced Practice Preceptors
Welcome!
Dear Health Care Professional:
Welcome to the School of Nursing at MGH Institute of Health Professions. We want to support preceptors with helpful information they can use while working with students. This preceptor landing page is newly developed as a resource for you.
MGH Institute School of Nursing programs are designed to prepare nurses to assume leadership roles in the health care system of the future. This includes engaging diverse individuals, families, groups, and communities in the mutual pursuit of healing and wholeness. We achieve this mission through excellence and innovation in education, scholarship, service, and practice.
Preceptors provide the bridge from the theoretical concepts to real-world practice and prepare our student to offer high quality comprehensive, compassionate health care.
Why do busy health care professionals become preceptors? They often share that they remember what it was like to be a student. Preceptors remember their own clinical experiences that shaped them into the providers they are today and recognize that being a preceptor is a way to pay it back and make their own contributions to the future of this essential profession.
If you are already a preceptor, thank you. If you would like to be a preceptor, come and be a part of our team [1]. You will significantly impact a student’s educational experience.
Elaine Tagliareni, EdD, RN, CNE, FAAN
Interim Dean, School of Nursing
"I was fortunate enough to have my fall 2016 clinical at the Falmouth Emergency Department with Dr. Michael Rest. What a fantastic experience! Dr. Rest went out of his way to help make every interaction a positive learning experience. He challenged me to come up with sensible differentials and I sincerely appreciate the time he took to review and explain advanced concepts to me."
Rick Hedstrom
Direct-Entry Master of Science Nursing student
Thoughtful. Caring. Meet Our Preceptors
The Preceptor Role
Preceptors are clinicians who provide the bridge from the theoretical concepts to real-world practice and prepare our student to offer high quality comprehensive, compassionate health care. Precepting involves the clinician, student, and faculty. The clinician guides the student in practice through teaching, mentoring, role modeling, and evaluation.
The preceptor is a resource to the student and allows opportunities for the clinical application of knowledge and skills in advance-practice nursing.
Students should see a variety of patients based on their skill level in the program. Preceptors are not responsible for the final course grade,
but do provide valuable input into the clinical evaluation.
Tangible Benefits of Being a Preceptor
Tuition Vouchers can be used to pay for courses (up to 12 credits) at MGH Institute of Health Professions. Depending on the course, this can equal a savings of over $14,000 in after-tax income. Learn more about Vouchers [10].
We provide preceptors with 104 hours of credit per semester to be used toward advanced-practice recertification. Review information on certification of hours [10]. [10]
Our preceptors receive full access to our library of Point-of-Care resources like: Up to Date, DynaMed, National Guideline Clearing House, OvidSP, PubMed@MGH [13], CINAHL, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Medline Complete, Clinical Key, and many more. Learn how to request library access [10].
Orientation for Precepting
Welcome
Thank you for your interest in precepting our nurse practitioner students. We welcome your expertise and contribution to our student’s clinical education. Preceptors provide the bridge from the theoretical concepts to real-world practice and prepare our student to offer high-quality, comprehensive, compassionate healthcare to all individuals, families, and the community. We offer you an overview of our NP programs, and available resources you may use to guide you in providing clinical education.
Program Overview
MGH Institute of Health Professions offers graduate-level programs to prepare students for advanced practice nursing in the nurse practitioner role. Students may be admitted to one of four degree programs:
Students must select one of the Advanced Practice Nursing Specialties [17] they wish to pursue at the time of admission. The content of each specialty includes advanced courses in health assessment, pharmacology, and pathophysiology, research, health policy, professional issues, and ethics. Each student must complete courses in their selected specialty and a series of clinical rotations demonstrating competency.
Students complete 630 hours in advanced practice over four semesters. Clinical rotations may be in a variety of primary, acute and/or community-based settings. Upon successful completion of the program, students are eligible to take the national certification exam related to their specialty.
Key MGH Institute People
Patricia A. Reidy, DNP, FNP-BC, Director of the Advanced Practice Graduate and CAS Programs

Resources for Preceptors
The School of Nursing aims to support preceptors in their critical role.
We value your time and dedication to our students and want to provide streamlined, easily accessible information to you when you need it. Resources for preceptors encompass information you may need during your tenure as a preceptor.
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What the E*value system is [20]: An online system for preceptors to evaluate students
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What tools we offer to help clinicians to be better preceptors: Quick reads and guidelines about precepting
Learn More
