As a unit-based clinical nurse educator, I ask nurses to become preceptors because I witness their daily clinical practice and I recognize that they have a lot of expertise to share with new graduates and students. Sometimes these nurses do not feel ready to start preceptor duties because they do not think they know enough, and they are nervous that the trainee will ask a question that they do not know the answer to. My response is that you do not have to know everything to be a great preceptor. In fact, a situation in which the preceptor does not know the answer can positively impact a new nurse when the preceptor demonstrates how to find help or access appropriate evidence-based resources. Sometimes a trainee learns more from a preceptor who does not know the answer than from a preceptor who can give an immediate answer to every question.

Nurses...

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