Some nursing schools have had to fight precedent by forming coalitions with educational partners. Two years ago in Utah, an agency refused to take students unless it was paid. According to Imogene Rigdon, associate dean for academic affairs at the University of Utah College of Nursing, the state's nursing schools unanimously refused to place students there under those conditions. Their unified stance of not paying has since been formalized through a statewide clinical placement consortium, and through support of the state s Leadership Forum of Deans, Directors of Schools of Nursing, and Agency Directors. Jan Lee, director of undergraduate and non-traditional programs at the University of Michigan School of Nursing, reports that, less formally, programs in her area have agreed in general not to offer reimbursement.
Preceptors serve a vital role in the teaching of our students.
It is too bad that in nursing we have to say we are not able to attach a monetary value to what they do. If paying preceptors becomes unavoidable in the quest to secure training slots, it would be a tactical mistake for nursing schools themselves to act as the funding source, many deans believe. But educational costs for most APN programs are not eligible for reimbursement now. It is the first legislative proposal to put AACN's Graduate Nurse Education concept into legislative language. Although it is too late for action in this Congress, AACN will be working on the proposal when Congress returns in January.