Leaders strive to continuously improve their own skills and knowledge. For many nurse leaders and clinicians, this is a natural extension of energy and enthusiasm toward the preparation of the next generation of leaders, educators and public health nurses.

Precepting provides an opportunity to teach, share leadership expertise, increase one's own knowledge base, serve as a role model and influence changes in leadership, education, practice and patient outcomes.

The preceptor plays a critical role in the educational process and development of leaders by monitoring and guiding the student's learning experience while acting as a role model.

Leadership Program Practice Hours Description

Practice experiences in the Leadership major (which includes Nursing Education, Organizational Leadership, Public Health Nursing and Health Informatics specialty areas) are designed to assimilate learning associated with coursework objectives, thereby facilitating program objectives.

Practice hours may be acquired through a variety of activities, such as practice contact hours; immersion into real-world experiences through interviewing and other explorative means; completing or creating specified policies or processes; demonstrating competencies in experiential learning activities; or any combination of these components. All activities require supervised academic experience.

Leadership Practicum and Residency

Students in the Leadership programs at the KU School of Nursing must complete practicum experiences relevant to their area of specialization. Practice sites are generally located in the Kansas City metropolitan area, but may extend across the state of Kansas and other states where students are located.

A variety of settings are utilized, including hospitals (academic health centers, rural, frontier and urban); community health organizations; non-profit organizations; colleges and universities; provider offices; primary and secondary schools; home health services; long-term care facilities; urgent care centers; federally-qualified health centers; a variety of governmental and business industry settings; and other appropriate settings.

Description of Programs

Students in the Leadership programs have completed most didactic coursework before beginning their leadership practicum and residency experiences. Students enter their leadership practicum or residency experiences ready to apply their knowledge in any type of patient, staff, student, organizational or community setting.