13 Nurses receive 2020 Preceptor of the Year honor
The ECU College of Nursing recently recognized 13 nurses from hospitals and health care agencies throughout the state and beyond with the inaugural Preceptor of the Year honors.
Each year, hundreds of nurses volunteer their time to serve as preceptors to undergraduate and graduate College of Nursing students. Many preceptors and clinical partners have worked with the college for more than a decade to help educate both graduate and undergraduate nursing students. These preceptors educate students — spending more than 100 hours working with each student — in clinical areas, assigning tasks, overseeing their work and providing feedback to help each student grow. Much like an internship, these clinical hours provide health sciences students with the real-world experiences that they will need to be able to navigate as they enter or advance in their field.
“There are people who have been preceptors for us for the past 15 years, and every single semester they’ll agree to take a student,” said Dr. Alta Andrews, ECU College of Nursing professor and director for community partnerships and practice. “The students and the faculty talk about how much they learn. When a student first arrives they are a novice, but the preceptors evaluate what they do well and what their learning needs are. Together they raise the competence level and help the students grow, so they gain confidence.”
College faculty also work with students in clinical areas and in labs, teaching small groups of six to eight, but preceptors provide students with one-on-one attention.
A good preceptor must have very strong clinical skills as well as very strong teaching skills, Andrews said. They can be nominated by their students or by College of Nursing faculty for the award. This year, honorees were given a personalized College of Nursing Preceptor of the Year tumbler and a certificate of appreciation to acknowledge their contributions.
“We’re so grateful for all of our preceptors and clinical partnerships. It would be impossible to overstate how important they are in giving nursing students the real-world experience they need,” said Dr. Sylvia Brown, dean of the ECU College of Nursing. “We deeply appreciate our preceptors’ valuable commitment to these future generations of Pirate Nurses.”
2020 Preceptors of the Year
By Category
Community Health (BSN and ABSN)
Karen Vick
UNC Nash Occupational Health and Wellness
Karen Vick, coordinator of occupational health and wellness at UNC Nash, spends the time to make sure that community health nursing students meet all of their objectives, while providing detailed, thorough feedback to the student and faculty about any concerns she may have. She allows students to participate fully in occupational health visits by screening the employees, providing immunizations and more. As a certified medical examiner, Vick has provided some students with excellent experiences after hours. Vick also provides the College of Nursing with helpful suggestions about other clinical sites and helped facilitate getting students the placements needed.
Capstone (BSN and ABSN)
Edgardo Jose
Vidant Medical Center
Ed Jose, a staff nurse at Vidant Medical Center and a nurse practitioner, takes at least one capstone student each year. His students say he teaches them more than they ever imagined possible. As an educator, Jose is patient, but holds high expectations and is very detailed and thorough with the students. Students gain confidence in their abilities under his skilled teaching.
Marc Schlachter
6A Cardiovascular Intermediate Care at Wake Med
Students always say, “He is the best teacher.” Marc Schlachter truly takes his students under his wing during the preceptorships. He enjoys working with students and understands their learning needs, providing constructive feedback to help the students grow and learn. Students report an appreciation of the time and interest he has in them.
Madeline Flowers
UNC Lenoir Health Care
Madeline Flowers is a student favorite because she pushes them to become more independent each clinical day. On the medical surgical unit where she works, there are a variety of patients and she makes sure the students are exposed to as many illnesses and skills as she can find. She also has a wonderful upbeat attitude and always agrees to work with ECU students.
Clinical Nurse Specialist
Robin McAlpin
Critical Care CNS at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital
Robin McAlpin goes above and beyond in identifying clinical training opportunities for her student on the unit, department and system level. Midway through this past semester, Robin was promoted to a new position as System Stroke Program Coordinator. Despite her newly elevated responsibilities, Robin continued to support her student which resulted in an opportunity to better understand system-level leadership and challenges. As a result, Robin’s student made significantly greater progress in meeting program-level objectives and specialty competencies than many of her peers. Robin’s commitment to the CNS role, to her patients, and to her alma mater was notable and greatly appreciated.
Nursing Education
Colleen Gordon
Fayetteville Technical Community College
Colleen Gordon is always extremely receptive to precepting ECU nursing education students. She communicates clearly with students and faculty and ensures that the students are having the best experience possible by providing a wide range of activities that are important for learning the role of an academic nurse educator. She is student-centered, friendly and very approachable.
Psychiatric Mental Health
Dr. Mihaela Fletcher
Walter B. Jones Alcoholic Rehabilitation Center
Dr. Mihaela Fletcher has been a preceptor for the ECU College of Nursing psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner program since the first semester the program started. She offers a wonderful learning experience for every NP student and is always willing and able to help the program. Her welcoming attitude and quality learning experiences are highly valued by the faculty and students.
Nurse Midwifery
Lisa Weppler
Wilson County Health Department
Although Lisa Weppler has been a valued preceptor for the college’s nurse midwifery program for many years, in 2020 she went above and beyond. Because the college is often in need of new preceptors and the pandemic caused additional challenges for securing clinical sites for students, Weppler reached out to the school to see if she could take two midwifery students instead of just one. She told our faculty that she had heard that we were having trouble getting a student into a clinical site due to COVID and she could take a second student and was willing to help. Both of Weppler’s students were able to complete the clinical hours and have fulfilling experiences.
Family Nurse Practitioner
Johnna Cowin
Vidant Women’s Care of Washington, NC
Johnna Cowin has been precepting midwifery and nurse practitioner students for over 20 years. She searches for learning opportunities for the students and nurtures them, challenging them to apply their course content and knowledge. She fosters appropriate independent performance in advanced practice students. Ms. Cowin provides daily feedback, so the student consistently improves. Students say they feel so comfortable after working with her and that she encourages them to branch out and gain confidence.
Kelly Buie Jones
Lee County Health Department
Kelly Buie Jones exemplifies what the College of Nursing looks for in its preceptors. An alumnus of the ECU College of Nursing FNP program, Jones advocates for the College of Nursing every turn and always agrees to precept the next generation of Pirate Nurses. Jones is a respected community leader and valuable primary care provider for underserved patients in a large safety-net organization. She is a model nurse practitioner for her students who consistently find her to be an outstanding teacher who encourages them to learn and continuously grow.
Leadership
Ginger Phelps
UNC Rex Risk Management
Ginger Phelps has been a wonderful mentor for ECU Nursing leadership students and helps them understand pediatric care from a tertiary care lens. Her excellent example of nursing leadership gives students the opportunity to see the theories they learn in clinical practice. Phelps’ work with students on their Quality Improvement projects often result in outstanding learning experiences, including a notable recent project involving failure modes and effect analysis of pediatric safe medication practice at UNC Rex.
Dawn Tetterton
Vidant Medical Center
Dawn Tetterton, nursing administrator for surgery, the cancer center and palliative care at Vidant Medical Center, models the principles ECU students are taught. Tetterton’s service line had one of the first units to close in response to COVID-19 pandemic. After many months of the unit being closed, she recognized that staff displaced to other units for over six months had begun looking for other jobs, and she recommended to executive leadership to re-open the unit as a retention effort for staffing. Tetterton advocated for her team and communicated to the interdisciplinary team the need to reopen the unit to help decrease turnover and retain experienced staff. Upon Tetterton’s recommendation, the unit was approved to return. While working with ECU nursing leadership students, Tetterton models a strong level of caring and compassion.
Neonatal Nurse Practitioner
Andra Clay
Carolinas Medical Center—NorthEast
Andra Clay is a consistently strong clinician and an engaging and supportive educator for all ECU NNP students. She is one who truly enjoys her role as a preceptor and students recognize that she is not only a great clinician, but a wonderful, caring teacher as well. Her knowledge, professionalism, and encouragement make her an asset for students.