From Classroom to Bedside: The Educator and Preceptor Companion

The preceptor is the most important person in a new nurse's first year. This book is for them. Every year, thousands of experienced nurses are handed a new graduate and asked to do something no one fully prepared them for: teach. Not supervise. Not shadow. Teach — while managing a full patient load, navigating an understaffed unit, and making dozens of real-time decisions about when to step in and when to let the new nurse try. From Classroom to Bedside: The Educator and Preceptor Companion is the evidence-based resource that preceptors, clinical educators, and nursing professional development specialists have needed but rarely had. Written by a doctorally prepared NPD specialist and critical care nurse with two decades of transition-to-practice program design experience, this book translates learning science into practical preceptor skill — chapter by chapter, shift by shift. What's inside: 18 comprehensive chapters spanning the full scope of clinical education — from the preceptor mindset and adult learning theory to simulation, interprofessional education, equity and inclusion, and specialty-context orientation The One-Minute Preceptor, SBI feedback framework, Duchscher's Transition Shock model, IPEC competencies, and TeamSTEPPS — applied to real clinical teaching situations A complete structured framework for managing the struggling orientee, including root cause analysis, performance improvement, and early termination of orientation when necessary 17 clinical scenarios with full analysis and reflective questions — one for each major chapter — for use in preceptor development programs or individual study 9 ready-to-use or adapt appendices: orientation checklist, feedback documentation tool, escalation framework, competency validation form, preceptor self-assessment, end-of-orientation competency summary, program metrics tracking, preceptor development curriculum, and professional resources Specialty-context chapters covering critical care, emergency department, perioperative, pediatric, and behavioral health orientation Who this book is for: Bedside preceptors who want to precept with purpose and confidence, not just survive orientation Nursing professional development specialists building or refining transition-to-practice programs Nurse managers and unit leaders responsible for orienting new staff and supporting their preceptors Nursing faculty and clinical educators bridging academic and clinical preparation Part of a paired series. This book is the companion to Book One: A Practical Guide to Clinical Judgment and Pattern Recognition — written for the new nurse. Together, the two volumes give nursing teams a shared language and framework: the new nurse learns to think like a clinician; the preceptor learns to teach like an educator. Both books are available on Amazon. The research is clear: structured orientation with prepared preceptors improves new nurse retention, reduces medication errors, shortens time to competency, and decreases first-year burnout. The problem has never been a lack of evidence. It has been a lack of resources for the people responsible for making it happen. This book is one of those resources.