Discover how we can help you achieve your career goals.
Preceptorship
You can expect a warm welcome when you join the Royal Devon. We nurture our workforce, celebrating home-grown talent with a wealth of opportunities for career progression alongside a generous benefits package. You'll be joining like-minded professionals who work together to deliver exceptional care to the communities we serve. This is what makes us a great place to work, and you'll be joining a team that feels just like family.
Part of our offer to you is our Preceptorship Programme to help you learn the ropes and make the exciting transition from newly qualified to a fully registered practitioner.
About Preceptorship
What is preceptorship?
The term Preceptorship describes ‘a period of structured transition for the newly registered Practitioner during which he or she will be supported by a Preceptor, to develop confidence as an autonomous professional, refine skills, values and behaviours and to continue on their journey of life-long learning’ (DH, 2010).
Preceptorship is designed to combine facilitated experiential learning in the workplace with a theoretical component based on facilitated group learning. This Programme is multi-professional and supports newly registered nurses, midwives, allied health professionals, return-to-practice practitioners, registrants entering a new part of the register and European/overseas prepared practitioners who register with the NMC / HCPC.
What does Preceptorship look like at the Royal Devon?

Our Royal Devon Preceptorship Programme will help you settle into your role, providing support over a 12-month programme to guide you as you develop your professional knowledge and skills. The structured programme consists of a series of study days, after which you will apply theory to practice and hone the skills you have learned as you gain experience within your clinical area. These study days are spread over the year and are delivered by our Clinical Training Team, where you’ll hear from our range of clinical experts.
The programme includes a Nationally recognised 'Buddy Scheme' that teams up new starters with a senior leader ‘Buddy’ to offer guidance and development opportunities. They’ll be your go-to people to find out everything about your department right down to where to grab a cup of tea on your break.
The support doesn't stop at the end of the programme. You’ll have your very own mentors to help you throughout your career. Not only do they provide practical help and support.
What does preceptorship look like for my chosen role?
Nurses
Our Preceptorship Programme will help you feel as confident and competent as possible with plenty of opportunities to hone your skillset as well as protected study time.
The added bonus of the programme is our buddy scheme. Your buddy will be someone outside of your team, who you can lean on for personal and professional advice, whether this involves advice when finding accommodation, or figuring out how to book annual leave.
Midwives
Our Preceptorship Programme will help you find your feet and develop your knowledge and skills so you feel as confident and competent as possible. Alongside the structured 12-month programme and buddy scheme, we offer Preceptorship Tuesdays, where the first Tuesday of every moth is dedicated to learning. This is facilitated by the Practice Development Midwife.
Alongside this, you’ll have an exclusive chance to have allocated time with a Professional Midwifery Advocate who will further support you in your role.
Allied Health Professionals
Allied Health Professionals are welcomed to the fold with a Preceptorship package of support that includes study days and practical skills that are spread over the course of a year. As well as one-to-one mentorship via the buddy scheme, newly qualified practitioners can expect a warm and supportive start to their careers with us.
Why is Preceptorship important?

This combination of hands-on experiential learning in the workplace and theoretical group learning is so important as it will equip you with everything you need for a smooth transition to your role. Facilitated learning means you will have support and guidance at every step of your career, giving you the confidence to deliver your best and achieve a fulfilling career.