Purpose: Malawi trains registered nurses as clinical preceptors to facilitate quality clinical teaching to nursing students. The concept of preceptorship is new in Malawi, and as such data about its contribution and challenges are scanty. It is for this reason that this study was undertaken to explore the challenges that preceptors face as they teach students.
Methods: This exploratory-descriptive qualitative study was conducted at Malawi’s four major referral hospitals utilised by nursing training institutions as clinical sites. A sample of 12 participants was purposively selected to provide data regarding challenges encountered during preceptorship activities. In-depth interviews were conducted in order to collect data on challenges experienced by these facilitators. The data were later categorised and analysed into themes.
Results: From the analysed data, three key themes emerged including preceptorship as time-consuming, lack of support from faculty members and lack of teamwork among preceptors.
Conclusion: The study concluded that preceptors face several challenges that affect the quality of clinical teaching. The study recommends that there should be an improvement in the working relationship among those involved in clinical teaching to enhance clinical learning experiences among student nurses. It also recommends that more registered nurses should be trained as preceptors to improve the student–preceptor ratio.

Keywords: preceptorship, preceptor, clinical teaching, nursing, clinical learning

中文翻译：

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马拉维护理本科生的挑战

目的：马拉维将注册护士培训为临床导师，以促进对护理学生的优质临床教学。导师制的概念在马拉维是新的，因此有关其贡献和挑战的数据很少。正是出于这个原因，这项研究旨在探索导师在教授学生时所面临的挑战。
方法：这项探索性描述性定性研究是在马拉维的四家主要转诊医院进行的，这些医院被护理培训机构用作临床场所。特意选择了 12 名参与者的样本，以提供有关在指导活动中遇到的挑战的数据。进行了深入访谈，以收集有关这些促进者所面临挑战的数据。数据随后被分类并分析为主题。
结果：从分析的数据中，出现了三个关键主题，包括导师制耗时、缺乏教职员工的支持以及导师之间缺乏团队合作。
结论：该研究得出结论，导师面临着影响临床教学质量的若干挑战。该研究建议，应改善参与临床教学的人员之间的工作关系，以增强学生护士的临床学习经验。它还建议应将更多的注册护士培训为导师，以提高学生与导师的比例。

关键词：导师制，导师制，临床教学，护理，临床学习