Paediatric nurses deliver child and family centred care that enables the child and their family to manage the physical, physiological, social and spiritual effects of a health problem and its treatment
​Preceptorship is a structured programme of support and teaching that enhances clinical experience through providing opportunities to practice and develop skills safely. For Newly Qualified Nurses (NQNs), preceptorship provides the opportunity to develop core clinical and theoretical skills during the transition from student (novice) to staff nurse (advanced beginner).

The development of the Wessex Paediatric Nursing Preceptorship Programme is a regional approach of delivering preceptorship to paediatric NQNs. It emulates a concept pioneered by the Wessex Neonatal Preceptorship Programme that utilises the expertise of paediatric teams within Wessex to collaboratively deliver training and support to all staff members on the programme. 
The paediatric preceptorship programme intends to ensure that all paediatric NQNs in Wessex receive a standardised preceptorship programme during their first year as a “new registrant”. The overarching programme vision is to generate a paediatric NQN workforce who delivers a consistently high standard of care through development of fundamental clinical knowledge and skills. This includes the recognition of the NQN workforce as future leaders of the NHS, providing a forum to identify and nurture hidden talent.
The paediatric preceptorship programme will be piloted in October 2017 and will involve a cohort of paediatric NQNs that represent each paediatric team within Wessex.

The pilot programme will run for a full period of preceptorship (12 months) to allow suitability of the agreed content and its delivery will be audited throughout the pilot period. This will then be used to inform the final programme regional programme due to commence in November 2018.
Programme Aims & Objectives
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The Wessex programme aims to create a paediatric NQN workforce that receives a generic level of skills, knowledge and support, achieved by:​
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  • Providing a standardised programme for  the Wessex paediatric NQN to achieve an agreed level of skill, competence and knowledge  from novice to advanced beginner
  • Deliverance of training and education that supports the transition of Wessex paediatric NQNs from student to staff nurse
  • Providing a standardised Clinical Competency Framework underpinned with a formal theoretical programme and orientation to individual units based upon National Health Service [NHS] (Knowledge Skills Framework [KSF] 2004 RCN, 2012 and NMC 2014) frameworks local orientation
  • Providing an integral step to improve Preceptee transition and socialisation from student to NQN and to further build upon knowledge, skills and competence to improve patient outcomes 
  • Improving NQN staff retention and improving attrition rates within the Network
  • A reduction in NQN staff sickness levels
  • Reducing NQN related Adverse Event Reporting (AER) through improving clinical support, skills and knowledge
  • Improving patient experience/care through improving education/skill development and staff retention
  • Developing shared learning pathways within the multi-professional  paediatric team 
  • Providing clear guidance on the role and responsibility, of the Preceptor, Preceptee all  members of the Wessex paediatric teams and the Nurse Educator for the regional programme
  • Contributing to the preceptees preparation for  a future career within Wessex