Friday, 30 October 2026
As we mark the second year of the iHV Preceptorship Framework for Health Visiting, we are always delighted to hear about how this is being implemented across the four nations and the positive impact it is having on strengthening preceptorship arrangements for newly qualified health visitors and enhancing preceptorship experiences.
A particular highlight has been the national recognition received by the health visiting team at Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, Northern Ireland, who were recently shortlisted for the Nursing Times Workforce Awards for their outstanding work in preceptorship. Huge congratulations to the team on this well-deserved achievement. We wish them every success at the awards ceremony and hope their outstanding work receives the recognition it so richly deserves.
Read on to learn more about their innovative and impactful approach to supporting newly qualified health visitors and school nurses through preceptorship.
Supporting the Preceptorship Journey from New Start SCPHN Health Visitor to Autonomous Practitioner: The Learning Never Ends
Newly qualified Specialist Community Public Health Nurse (SCPHN) Health Visitors are entering an increasingly complex practice environment. Rising safeguarding concerns, widening inequalities, poverty, vaccine hesitancy and growing community vulnerability have all increased the demands on practitioners from the start of their careers.
Within Belfast Health and Social Care Trust (BHSCT), whilst recruitment remained strong, we recognised the need to prioritise supporting newly qualified Health Visitors to transition confidently into autonomous practitioners. As Clinical Educators, we acknowledged the need for a structured approach that would strengthen confidence, competence and wellbeing, while supporting retention and professional growth.
To address this, we developed a six-month Health Visiting Preceptorship Programme tailored to the learning needs of new SCPHN Health Visitors. The programme combined Trust and regional preceptorship standards with the Institute of Health Visiting (iHV) Preceptorship Framework for Health Visiting, including the iHV Preceptorship Gradient of Growing, Embedding and Thriving: GET model.
This evidence-based approach provided a supportive pathway that enabled practitioners to develop at their own pace while building resilience for the future.
The programme placed the preceptee at its centre. Through protected fortnightly meetings with preceptors, monthly reflective supervision sessions with clinical educators and recognition and evaluation on completion, newly qualified staff received consistent support throughout their transition to practice. The aim was simple: to help health visitors feel confident, valued and equipped to deliver high-quality care to babies, children and families.
The power of effective preceptorship
Voice of the Preceptees:
“Starting my journey as a newly qualified SCPHN Health Visitor was both exciting and challenging. The preceptorship framework provided a personalised and structured approach to support my professional development, focusing on areas identified for further learning and growth. It enabled me to recognise my progress as I moved through each stage of the programme towards becoming a confident and competent practitioner.
Regular meetings with my preceptor, reflective supervision with my clinical educator and opportunities to discuss challenging situations in a supportive environment were invaluable. These experiences strengthened my knowledge, developed my resilience and enhanced my confidence in professional judgement. Feeling supported and encouraged throughout this transition has enabled me to grow as a practitioner and feel better equipped to continue to develop throughout my career.”
Sarah Wilson
“The framework and preceptorship allowed me to feel safe and supported. I enjoyed growing and embedding my knowledge and skills. I felt very supported by my preceptor, clinical educator and deputy - thank you for making the supervision with yourself transformative and enjoyable where I can now go on and hopefully thrive to be a fabulous Health Visitor like all of you.”
Megan McGowan
“I enjoyed the supervision sessions with my Clinical educator and preceptor, I thought it was helpful to reflect on my practice at different stages of the preceptorship programme and to benefit from their support and guidance. It was beneficial to have an assigned preceptor and deputy preceptor to discuss any issues and help build my confidence in managing my caseload. I liked the model of growing thriving and embedding as it gave you guidelines to strive towards."
Gina Colaluca
Great frameworks are valueless without the staff to deliver them
Alongside supporting newly qualified staff, increasing preceptor capacity across the service became a key focus. Working in partnership with nurse development leads, awareness of the programme was promoted through professional forums and team engagement sessions. Hearing directly from a newly qualified health visitor about the positive impact of structured support helped bring the programme to life and encouraged colleagues to become involved.
As a result, more health visitors undertook preceptor preparation training, and a dedicated database of trained preceptors was created. This increased capacity, improved consistency, and allowed responsibility for preceptorship to be shared more equitably across teams.
The impact has been significant: preceptor numbers have grown from seven to 35, creating greater access to support and strengthening the preceptorship experience across the service.
The programme has also recognised the important contribution of preceptors. Through protected support, supervision, celebration and professional development opportunities, preceptors have been empowered to guide newly qualified colleagues while feeling valued in their role.
Investing in people, Delivering Success
A preceptor’s perspective:
“I love my role as a health visitor within the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust and was delighted to become a preceptor for newly qualified colleagues. As health visiting preceptorship differs from general nursing, I found the iHV Preceptorship Framework invaluable in guiding my support.
The framework outlines the three stages of professional development for newly qualified health visitors [iHV Preceptorship Gradient – GET Model] and helped me provide structured support while encouraging autonomy and confidence. Although every health visitor develops their own style of practice, the framework ensured my preceptee received the knowledge, guidance, and opportunities needed to become a competent and autonomous practitioner.
Being a preceptor has been a rewarding experience, reinforcing the importance of investing in our workforce to deliver high-quality outcomes for children and families.”
Hollie Rodgers
A Journey worth Celebrating
The success of the programme has led to external recognition, including an invitation to present at the Institute of Health Visiting Celebratory Event 2025 and more recently we have been shortlisted for the Nursing Times Workforce Awards in the category of Preceptorship Programme of the Year 2026.
Success Through Support and Collaboration
“I am delighted to acknowledge that the BHSCT Health Visiting Clinical Education Team has been shortlisted for this year's Nursing Times Workforce Awards in the category of Preceptorship Programme of the Year.
This is a fantastic achievement and recognition of the dedication, commitment, and hard work invested in implementing the preceptorship framework across our service.
A sincere thank you to everyone who has supported this work, with particular recognition to our Nurse Development Leads and to all participating preceptors and preceptees. Your contribution has been instrumental in making this programme a success.
Congratulations to all involved and thank you for your continued commitment to supporting excellence in practice.”
Sinead Hanna
Supporting the Newly Qualified SCPHN School Nurse
School Nurse Clinical Educator Perspective
"Last year, our Health Visiting Clinical Educator colleagues shared their positive experience of using the iHV Preceptorship Framework. We saw an opportunity to use this alongside our regionally agreed preceptorship documentation to enhance the experience for newly qualified SCPHN School Nurses.
With the full support of our team managers, we began exploring how the framework could complement our existing approach. Although we were unable to fully implement it at that time, we found that it brought an additional SCPHN focus to preceptorship, helping our newly qualified School Nurse move beyond simply completing the process towards growing in confidence, embedding learning and thriving in her new role as the framework:
- Strengthened psychological safety for both the preceptee and preceptor
- Created an environment that encouraged learning, reflection and development
- Structured meaningful conversations between the preceptee and preceptor and Clinical Educator
- Guided individual learning contracts and ongoing professional development
- Recognised existing knowledge and experience, while supporting the development of the higher level of expertise and autonomy expected within SCPHN practice
- Built confidence, competence and professional identity as a qualified SCPHN School Nurse."
Marie Canavan
Growing Together: Shaping The Future
Our focus now is on sustaining and developing the programme. Priorities include:
- increasing preceptor capacity
- strengthening reflective supervision
- developing a SharePoint resource hub
- supporting wider regional implementation across Health Visiting
- supporting our School Nursing Colleagues as they incorporate the iHV Preceptorship Gradient - GET model into their preceptorship Framework.
One of the greatest lessons learned has been that successful preceptorship is built on people, relationships and shared learning. The experiences of both preceptee and preceptor highlight the importance of ongoing support, collaboration and the need to create a psychological safe positive learning environment where practitioners felt confident to grow.
The learning never ends but with the right support, and investing in our newly qualified health visitors and school nurses we can continue to strengthen both individual practice and the future workforce, enabling newly qualified health visitors and school nurses to become confident, autonomous practitioners who make a lasting difference to babies, children, young people and families.