Rural clinician opinion on being a preceptor.

Introduction: This article reports the evaluation of the motivation and experiences of preceptors of health professional students in the Spencer Gulf Rural Health School (SGRHS) in South Australia. The aims for this evaluation were to establish: (1) What factors influenced the professional's decision to precept students? (2) Did preceptors report having adequate skills and preparation for preceptoring? (3) What were the variations in professional streams with regards to the factors and skills of the staff involved? (4) What were preceptors' overall perceptions of their role? Heeding the opinions of preceptors involved in such initiatives is an important part of ensuring the sustainability of the rural workforce initiatives such as SGRHS.

Methods: A preceptor questionnaire was developed from the literature in 2002 and pilot tested twice.