Porter-O’Grady: Nursing school, hospital collaboration can address preceptor shortage

Nursing schools, hospitals and clinics should collaborate to ensure enough preceptors are available to supervise nurse practitioner students for the 500 clinical hours required by accreditors, according to AONL member and consultant Tim Porter-O’Grady, EdD, RN. A lack of preceptors is forcing NP students to spend thousands of dollars to pay preceptors to take clinical students, prompting ethical concerns, as well as leading to graduation delays amidst a shortage of primary care clinicians. Porter-O’Grady urges nursing schools to build partnerships with health systems and to take responsibility for securing clinical placements for students. He also encourages hospitals and clinics to protect preceptors’ time and offer compensation as part of their investment in training the future nursing workforce. (The Hechinger Report article, 8/24/26)