Who are the clinicians on-site that provide clinical education to students?

• A. Mentors
• B. Nurse educators
• C. Preceptors
• D. Clinical instructors

Answer: (C)

The main idea here is identifying who directly supervises and teaches students in the real patient care setting. Those on-site clinicians who guide a student through hands-on practice, model clinical skills, provide immediate feedback, and assess competency during a rotation are called preceptors. They bridge classroom learning with actual practice and help students develop professional judgment in real patient scenarios. Mentors focus more on broad professional development outside the immediate clinical rotation, nurse educators are typically faculty who design and teach the curriculum, and clinical instructors may teach in some programs but aren’t the standard on-site supervisor for all clinical experiences. Therefore, the on-site clinicians who provide clinical education to students are preceptors.