NDHT’s preceptorship buddy scheme has been shortlisted for a Nursing Times workforce awards with the winners being announced on 17 November at an awards ceremony in London. 
The preceptorship ‘buddy scheme’ was established on 2019 and tested alongside the preceptorship programme in 2020 to address issues raised around organisation support, sense of being valued and understanding of preceptees’ challenges. In addition to other key pieces of work relating to organisation culture, NHS people promise and changes to the standards of proficiencies for nurses. The programme works by linking leaders and preceptees (new registrants) together using a model of reciprocal mentoring. 60 senior leaders across clinical and operations roles have been on-boarded supporting 30-40 new registrants over the next year, aiming to;
- Reduce attrition
- Changing organisational culture
- Eliminating fear of the unknown in terms of seniority
- Visibility of leaders as role models
- Creating opportunities to influence leadership
- Increasing confidence and empowerment in communicating with senior leaders and stakeholder
- Creating potential to broaden networking building mutually beneficial relationships
The setup of the buddy programme was a way of considering how preceptees can be supported differently in practice to feel valued, challenged and supported. It created visibility of senior leaders enabling them to connect with the workforce. The programme has a twofold effect in that it offers preceptees opportunities to receive coaching from our leaders but also offered a reciprocal mentoring model for our leaders.
The success of the programme has been down to the commitment and dedication of both leaders and preceptees who have adopted and embraced this new programme with enthusiasm, motivation and positivity. Early feedback clearly demonstrates the impact the programme is having on leaders and preceptees and the positive influence reciprocal mentoring can bring.
Mentoring can also be extremely beneficial to leaders and provide a different perspective on challenges faced within healthcare at different levels.
You can find out more about the scheme at this link