Utah clinical preceptorship study
Utah clinical preceptorship study
Clinical training is a key part of preparing the health workforce. The Utah Health Workforce Advisory Council (HWAC) has identified a shortage of clinical preceptors as one of the biggest problems. (Preceptors are experienced professionals who train and guide students). This shortage is hurting health education and workforce development. Because of this, the HWAC made it a top goal in their 2024 action plan to study the preceptor shortage and develop solutions.
The HWAC formed the Clinical Preceptorship Subcommittee. This group included Physicians, Advanced Practice Registered Nurses, and Physician Assistants. Their job was to study the state of preceptorship in Utah, discuss different policy options to recognize and increase the number of preceptors, and then create a final recommendation for HWAC consideration.
The subcommittee members were:
- Dr. Sarah Woolsey- Chair
- Dr. Laura Rosch
- Dr. Melissa Hinton
- Dr. Beth Luthy
- Carrie Torgersen
- Dr. Emily Winn
- Rosemary Bowden
- Dr. Amber Collins
- Dr. Mark Ott
- Dr. Michael Rhodes
- Dr. Sheryl Steadman
- Michelle McOmber
- Dr. Sam Finlayson
Outcomes
The HWAC finalized and adopted the recommendation during their meeting on June 18, 2025.
The documents below explain the clinical training landscape in Utah, the subcommittee’s process and the HWAC’s final recommendation.
- “Bridging the Gap”: A report that explains the current state of clinical training in Utah.
- “Building the Bridge”: A document that describes how the recommendations were created.
- The official proposal for the "Clinical Preceptorship Stipend Program." This program would give money (a stipend) to preceptors as a way to thank and support them for the essential work they do.
Veritas Health Solutions, LLC, consultants of the HWAC, helped to conduct and facilitate this study and create the final documents.
Please note that the HWAC and the Utah Health Workforce Information Center (HWIC) teamed up with the state's licensing office (Utah Division of Professional Licensing) to collect information from people who have health licenses. This information comes from a survey you can choose to take when you renew your license. The HWAC knows that many types of healthcare jobs have a hard time finding people to be preceptors. But to make sure the study was useful and the suggestions were feasible, they had to focus on a few groups first. They chose to focus on Physicians and Advanced Practice Registered Nurses because their information was already received. Even though the data for Physician Assistants was still being processed, they were included in the final recommendation.