Preceptorship Case Study – Mid and South Essex

Organisational Details

Mid & South Essex NHS Foundation trust (MSEFT) is an Acute Trust within the Mid and South Essex Integrated Care System (MSEFT). The Trust provides an extensive range of acute healthcare services from three main hospital sites at Broomfield, Basildon and Southend with several smaller sites. We provide tertiary Cardiothoracic services at our Basildon site and at Broomfield we have the renowned St Andrews Burns and Plastics Centre. We are one of the largest Trusts in the country, with approximately 16,000 staff serving a population of 1.2 million. Our annual turnover is £1.5 billion.

In 2024 – we enrolled 524 Registrants onto our Preceptorship Programme, these staff were a mix of Nursing Associates, newly registered students who had chosen MSEFT for their first destination post and our Internationally Educated Nurses who had successfully completed the OSCE programme.

We partner with several universities, primarily Anglia Ruskin University and University of Essex for Nursing and Midwifery students and support approx. 1,100 students during their programmes. In addition, we utilise nursing career apprenticeships with several London universities across a range of courses.

Description

Following a period without formal provision, we launched a structured Preceptorship Programme with five protected study days delivered over 12 months. Initially piloted at one site, it now operates across all three main hospital locations. The programme blends face-to-face and experiential learning, with sessions led by a cross-functional team including nursing leadership and organisational development staff. It introduces preceptees to leadership early via the Edward Jenner programme and offers practical support, including the gift of How to Thrive as a Newly Qualified Nurse book.

Support and Learning for Preceptees

Preceptees benefit from a structured, 12-month programme with five protected study days, designed to support both professional confidence and leadership development from the outset. The sessions cover a broad range of essential topics, including:

• Record Keeping (delivered by Bond Salon in a courtroom-style session)
• Resilience, Emotional Intelligence, Leadership, Delegation, and Time Management (led by the Trust’s Team Development Lead)
• Trust Nursing Career Pathway (introduced early to support long-term progression)
• Revalidation and NMC Hearings (now included on day one to encourage early reflection)
• Introduction to Coaching Skills (incorporated into the final day to support future preceptor development)
• Edward Jenner Programme (introduced and embedded in as part of our commitment to developing leadership capability early in the preceptee journey)

Delivery is collaborative and multi-disciplinary, involving the PREP team, Head of Nursing, Preceptorship Lead, various nursing specialists (e.g. bereavement, sepsis team, etc), and external partners. The face-to-face format enables peer networking, shared learning, and builds cross-site connection among new registrants.

Preceptees also receive a copy of How to Thrive as a Newly Qualified Nurse (by Carol Forde Johnston) at the start of the programme – an appreciated personal touch that reinforces self-awareness and self-directed growth. The programme is responsive to feedback, which has already shaped the reduction from 18 to 12 months and led to reordering of content for greater relevance and impact.

Support and Learning for Preceptors

We are continually evolving how we support and develop our preceptors to ensure they feel confident, recognised, and part of a culture that values learning and support.

Following an initially successful roll-out of an “Introduction to Coaching Skills” session delivered quarterly at each site, attendance began to decline due to financial pressures limiting access to study leave for non-mandatory training. In response, the PREP team reviewed the model and adapted delivery: the coaching skills content is now integrated into the final study day of the Preceptorship Programme itself. This allows prospective preceptors to benefit from development without requiring additional leave or separate booking.

Staff who complete the coaching session called “Introduction to coaching skills” are awarded a certificate and recognised through a digital badge on their email signature—promoting visibility and value across the organisation. In addition, preceptor training can be accessed at any time through our Elevate Learning Management System, providing flexibility for staff to self-enroll and complete training at their own pace. Preceptors are offered 12 hours of protected time to both support preceptees and develop in their role.

Preceptor refresher training is not mandated, but learning is self-selected by the preceptor from a wide variety of courses either online or face to face. We are keen to continue refining this offer in line with evolving workforce needs.

One of our most successful and well-received initiatives has been the quarterly Practice Assessor & Supervisor (PA/PS) Awards. Originally piloted on one site, these now run quarterly at each of our three main sites and have been expanded to include midwifery and AHP colleagues. Students nominate assessors or supervisors who made a meaningful impact on their placement. Nominees, their managers, and students are invited to an award ceremony led by the Director or Deputy Director of Nursing. These joyful events create visibility and morale while celebrating the value of supervision and mentorship.

Our Practice Education Nurses (within the education team) support preceptees for a period of up to 6 months in the clinical area. Preceptors engage with this team and identify any specific areas for the team to focus on to support the preceptees.

We have also contributed a good practice example to the NHSE Learning Hub, which highlights how we collaborate with Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and integrate SSSA training into our preceptorship programme, building continuity between student and early career experiences.

Inclusion and Equity

The Preceptorship programme was introduced during the OSCE programme and explained to our Internationally educated colleagues. Once they had gained their PIN they were enrolled onto the course.

Preceptees were involved in feedback – leading to reduction in length of the course. Now we are participating in the University of Essex initiative to introduce Preceptorship into the curriculum we will use student feedback in our reviews.

No service users were included – we do not currently have a service user panel at the trust.

Challenges and Lessons learned

Initially after developing our programme  we piloted the first cohort on one site in 2020 before rolling out across the other sites. One practical barrier was securing rooms to be able to schedule and deliver cohort dates.   This was overcome with the support of our Senior Nursing team, allowing us to plan dates up to a year in advance and identifying venue availability.

Until our programme was developed there had been a substantial period of time where access to a Preceptorship course had been scarce or absent from some sites. One barrier was actually being able to identify staff that were eligible to attend, and this initially was overcome by visiting wards and departments and gaining that information from ward and departmental managers. We also used this as an opportunity to promote and advertise the new programme. Another challenge has been that some starters were joining their Preceptorship late. Now, working in conjunction with the Induction team, we identify at our Registered Professionals Induction course anyone who is suitable to attend the Preceptorship Programme. The PREP team are made aware and work with Departmental managers and new starters to identify a suitable cohort for them to join. As we also needed to streamline access to the course, we now have two easy methods of booking onto the course, both managed via our Learning Management System, which also provides evidence of  attendance and completion.

Naturally, the new programme followed NHSE guidance & this also required a shift in the expectation of what the course content was going to be.  We moved away from a skills & competency-based programme to one with priorities of development, leadership & professionalism. One issue we encountered is that our external provider on Record Keeping announced their intention to move from a face to face delivery to online. We felt that an online delivery would not work as well, because of the preceptee participation and the “atmosphere” of a Mock Coroners Court environment. Reflecting on our achievements, we were  delighted to able to negotiate and influence the Provider to continue face to face delivery.

Overall, the Head of Nursing and our Preceptorship lead feel proud of the programme, we were obviously delighted to be awarded the NIQM & as always are now moving on in our journey towards a multi-professional approach.