Dietitians of Canada

Preceptoring

In a preceptoring relationship, a dietitian supports the training of a dietetic student. Dietetic education programs rely on preceptors to provide real-life, practice-based experience to students who aspire to be dietitians. In this way, it provides a critically important service to the dietetic profession.

What is preceptoring?

Preceptoring usually occurs within a structured program model, such as a dietetic internship program.

With the help of an experienced “preceptor” dietitian-guide, students apply previously acquired academic knowledge to current practice situations. The experience helps students gain confidence, as well as increase the knowledge and skills they’ll need in order to succeed in a dietitian’s role.

Why is preceptoring important?

Preceptoring is one of the many ways in which the dietetics profession supports the development of the next generation of dietitians.

Preceptoring:

• encourages and facilitates dietetic students to enter the profession. Today, there are not enough dietitians being trained to replace the significant number who are approaching retirement age. Increasing the number of preceptors is one of the solutions to this problem.
• creates a learning climate that provides opportunities for joint sharing of information, which strengthens the knowledge base for both the preceptor and the student.
• develops networking and working relationships between new and experienced practitioners.