Neonatal nurses provide vital care to vulnerable sick and premature newborn babies and play an important role in supporting the parents of the baby at an anxious time.
The programme will help us achieve our vision of a world-class neonatal nursing workforce providing the very best care to newborn babies and their families across Wessex. This quality programme enables nurses to take a step by step approach to building clinical competence, developing confidence and resilience and becoming leaders in their trusts and the NHS. The programme was developed by the multi-professional Wessex Neonatal Network, taking into account the experience of parents, staff and students.
The first year was a Pilot Programme, which started in October 2014 and concluded in October 2015. The programme has been evaluated very positively from all stakeholders. The programme will have 10 mandatory study days each year with Action Learning sets incorporated into the study days. In addition Facebook will be utilized as an adjunct to traditional didactic education to facilitate shared learning, peer support and effective communication.

The programme will consist of Preceptees newly qualified nurses [NQN] (Child Branch) and/or novice nurses to the specialty of neonates from within the Wessex Network and will run twice a year in October and April.
The aim of the programme is:
  • To provide an integral step to improve Preceptee transition and socialisation from student to Newly Qualified Nurse [NQN] and to further build upon knowledge, skills and competence to improve patient outcomes.
  • To provide a logical, sequenced approach to developing not only clinical competence but will help to cultivate leadership skills from the very beginning of their career pathway in neonates.
  • A standardised Clinical Competency Framework underpinned with a formal theoretical programme and orientation to individual units National Health Service [NHS] (Knowledge Skills Framework [KSF] 2004, Royal College of Nursing [RCN] 2012, 2015).
  • The development of shared learning pathways within the multi-professional neonatal team.
  • To provide clear guidance on the role and responsibility, of the Preceptor, Preceptee and the Neonatal Team.
  • Robust Foundation Learning in preparation for career development within neonates.
  • To strengthen professional relationships

Programme curriculum and roles & responsibilities 
Read about the evaluation of the Wessex Neonatal Preceptorship programme in this
​blog for NHS Employers
Please complete this form to be sent more information about the nursing preceptorship programmes, or to apply to join a programme

Simulated sessions
As part of the innovative techniques used to deliver high quality education and training to the neonatal preceptees, live actors are employed to deliver scenario's that allow the preceptee to safely observe and partake in group learning.

Examples of how this has been used so far are illustrated below.

Patient Safety Projects

As part of the preceptorship programme, preceptees attend a patient safety study day run by Health Education Wessex. The aim of this day is to help the preceptee to identify areas in which patient safety can be improved in their clinical area. The preceptee then undertakes a project that will allow appropriate development on one area to improve practice and demonstrate their ability to recognise, audit and improve practice.
Patient Safety Day - Important information

Project proposal hand in date: date will be identified once you have registered for the day - submission available via Health Education Wessex Projects page (click icon below for direct link).

You can complete the proposal using Microsoft word but you need to register on to the Health Education Wessex Projects page before being able to submit your proposal. If you are submitting as part of a pair or group, you need to submit the proposal under one of your names but make sure the proposal displays all of your aims!

Project poster hand in date: not will identified during your attendance of the patient safety study day - submission available via Health Education Wessex Projects page (click icon below for direct link).

For examples of previous posters please use the links in the section below.
Contact
  • For more information on the Neonatal Nursing Preceptorship Prrogramme, please contact Kim Edwards at [email protected]
Feedback & Testimonials from preceptees
 Click here for latest preceptee cohort evaluatory report
"I entered into nursing later in life than my peers, having completed a previous degree in Criminology and Criminal Justice with a view to helping rehabilitate young offenders. Having worked with young offenders, and the challenges they present throughout my training, I can honestly say that even this could not prepare me for just how difficult my transition from student to registered nurse would be. On top of that I was entering into neonatal nursing as newly qualified, a field which throughout my training I had been told was far too difficult for newly qualified nurses to undertake. Despite this, I felt that my passion for neonatal nursing would surpass the difficulties of the 'transition shock' phenomenon, something which I am now all too familiar with.

While my passion for my field and incredibly supportive colleagues has certainly helped to ease the challenges of being newly qualified, I can honestly say that if it weren't for the Neonatal Preceptorship programme, I would not now be writing to you as a neonatal nurse, nor would I have the opportunity to feel confident in my ability to support my fellow newly qualified peers. The programme has instilled within me a sense of purpose and belonging within my field and I have enjoyed immensely the various study days, not just for the evidence based academic content, but also for the opportunity they create for action learning, where you all of sudden realize that you are not alone in your nursing struggles.

Having spoken at length with other newly qualified friends who work in various other paediatric departments, the consensus is that this programme is unique in its delivery and I feel extremely privileged to have been a part of it. It has been clear from the beginning that aim of each individual who was kind enough to take part in the study days only wanted the very best for us all and enjoyed sharing their knowledge and wisdom"
"I had a really nice time at St. Richards. Everyone was really friendly and treated me just like part of the team. I was able to help everyone, be involve in patient care and decisions during ward rounds, help during admissions and procedures such as LPs and blood samples. It was interesting to see how both units (level 2 and 3) complement each other, how our job is taken over by such lovely team and how parents are supported in many different ways after being with us, even after discharge (from community). It’s interesting to see the journey of babies and parents after being in a level 3 unit. I was also quite impressed with the fact that even though a level 2 unit has less babies, the amount of staff to look after those babies and to be responsible for many other tasks (such as laundry, cleaning equipment, milk kitchen, admissions from maternity and community) is not enough so a level 2 unit can also be as busy as a level 3 but in different ways and due to different reasons.

 I felt that in a level 2 unit junior nurses  are more involved in decisions regarding their patients’ care and further plan instead of just being a discussion between nurse in charge and medical team most of the time. I think that in a level 2 unit junior nurses have the chance to developed other skills more quickly than junior nurses in a level 3 unit such as retrieval situations and emergency situations - because there's less staff and in a emergency nurses need to take actions until the medical team arrives. However these same junior doctors can't experience others situations as often as junior nurses in a level 3 unit so they may take a bit longer to develop certain skills such as nursing care of extreme premature babies, ventilators, certain drugs and ROP surgeries. In conclusion I think that all neonatal nurses should have the opportunity to work in a level 2 and 3 units in order to develop a different mixed of skills that contributes to self-confident, competent and skilled neonatal nurses".