In the life of Susan Clapp, CNM, precepting is a gift that is both given and received. Susan was working in Labor & Delivery after receiving her LPN in 1992. At the time, one of her instructors who was a nurse-midwife got Susan very interested in the profession, but life took over. Between a husband and two babies, Susan’s dream of being a midwife sat in the wings until another midwife started working on her floor.
Susan enrolled in Frontier Nursing University (FNU) in Class 81 and received her CNM in 2012. During her time as a student, she was the recipient of mentoring by three different preceptors.
“I was so blessed. They were fantastic and they were lovely,” Susan says of her preceptors.
Now, as a full-scope nurse-midwife for the Department of Defense at Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center in Ft. Hood, TX, Susan gets to pay that gift forward.
As many nurses know, precepting is not an easy task. Many students are leaders in a medical setting, and being a novice under the direction of a preceptor can prove a difficult transition for both parties. It can also be hard for students to find preceptors, and when they do, the hospital may not accept a preceptee or give first choice to medical residents.
Preceptors also face a challenge, because it adds so much work to their already-full plate of patients. A good preceptor expends extra hours for teaching and demonstrations while precepting, which can be draining and stressful.
Despite the difficulties that come with precepting, Susan estimates she has precepted around 20 students since her graduation from Frontier six years ago. Her team of nurse-midwives strives to constantly have a preceptee in rotation, so that the students can benefit from being in their practice.
One of her recent preceptees had a triumphant moment during a complicated, emergency case. Though Susan could tell she was nervous, she let her preceptee take the lead – and was ecstatic with how she took control of the situation.
“She did so good and it made me incredibly proud. We got out of the room and I was squealing like a teenager,” says Susan.
Moments like these are what Susan lives for – and the reason she continues precepting.
“I think it’s important because you need to give back to your community,” she says. “You need to grow the nurse practitioner and the provider profession. You’ve got to give back so that those students can grow. If you don’t do it, then nobody is going to do it.”
Susan doesn’t stop at precepting in her mission to give back to the midwifery community. She was President of the FNU Alumni Association Advisory Council president for 5 years, and now serves on the council as the Development Committee Chair. She also participates in FNU’s SAGE Mentoring Network and Wide Neighborhoods Ambassador Program. Frontier clearly takes a special place in Susan’s life.
“I went [to Frontier] and I found this whole, big huge community,” Susan says. “You have to find your people; I went there and found a huge community.”
Of the 20-or-so students that Susan has precepted, the cycle is coming full circle for a few of them as they are beginning to precept others. It’s a proud moment for Susan. But she also reminds the ones that haven’t started precepting that they don’t have to know everything.
“Ninety percent of your job is caring,” she says.
And for anyone doubting their qualifications as a preceptor, Susan has an answer:
“At first you feel so unworthy. You think about your preceptor as this huge mentor, they’re all-knowing, they’re like superheroes. And you think to yourself, ‘I’m not that person.’ But you are that person. You just have to step out there and do it.”
Carrie Belin is an experienced board-certified Family Nurse Practitioner and a graduate of the Johns Hopkins DNP program, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Georgetown University School of Nursing, and Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. She has also completed fellowships at Georgetown and the University of California Irvine.
Angie has been a full-scope midwife since 2009. She has experience in various birth settings including home, hospital, and birth centers. She is committed to integrating the midwifery model of care in the US. She completed her master’s degree in nurse-midwifery at Frontier Nursing University (FNU) and her Doctorate at Johns Hopkins University. She currently serves as the midwifery clinical faculty at FNU. Angie is motivated by the desire to improve the quality of healthcare and has led quality improvement projects on skin-to-skin implementation, labor induction, and improving transfer of care practices between hospital and community midwives. In 2017, she created a short film on skin-to-skin called 
Justin C. Daily, BSN, RN, has ten years of experience in nursing. At the start of his nursing career, Justin worked as a floor nurse on the oncology floor at St. Francis. He then spent two years as the Director of Nursing in a small rural Kansas hospital before returning to St. Francis and the oncology unit. He has been in his current position as the Chemo Nurse Educator for the past four years. He earned an Associate in Nurse from Hutchinson Community College and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Bethel College.
Brandy Jackson serves as the Director of Undergraduate Nursing Programs and Assistant Educator at Wichita State University and Co-Director of Access in Nursing. Brandy is a seasoned educator with over 15 years of experience. Before entering academia, Brandy served in Hospital-based leadership and Critical Care Staff nurse roles. Brandy is passionate about equity in nursing education with a focus on individuals with disabilities. Her current research interests include accommodations of nursing students with disabilities in clinical learning environments and breaking down barriers for historically unrepresented individuals to enter the nursing profession. Brandy is also actively engaged in Interprofessional Education development, creating IPE opportunities for faculty and students at Wichita State. Brandy is an active member of Wichita Women for Good and Soroptimist, with the goal to empower women and girls. Brandy is a TeamSTEPPS master trainer. She received the DASIY Award for Extraordinary Nursing Faculty in 2019 at Wichita State University. 
Dr. Sabrina Ali Jamal-Eddine is an Arab-disabled queer woman of color with a PhD in Nursing and an interdisciplinary certificate in Disability Ethics from the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC). Dr. Jamal-Eddine’s doctoral research explored spoken word poetry as a form of critical narrative pedagogy to educate nursing students about disability, ableism, and disability justice. Dr. Jamal-Eddine now serves as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in UIC’s Department of Disability and Human Development and serves on the Board of Directors of the National Organization of Nurses with Disabilities (NOND). During her doctoral program, Sabrina served as a Summer Fellow at a residential National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH) Summer Institute at Arizona State University (2023), a summer fellow at Andrew W. Mellon’s National Humanities Without Walls program at University of Michigan (2022), a Summer Research Fellow at UC Berkeley’s Othering & Belonging Institute (2021), and an Illinois Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and related Disabilities (LEND) trainee (2019-2020).
Vanessa Cameron works for Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nursing Education & Professional Development. She is also attending George Washington University and progressing towards a PhD in Nursing with an emphasis on ableism in nursing. After becoming disabled in April 2021, Vanessa’s worldview and perspective changed, and a recognition of the ableism present within healthcare and within the culture of nursing was apparent. She has been working since that time to provide educational foundations for nurses about disability and ableism, provide support for fellow disabled nursing colleagues, and advocate for the disabled community within healthcare settings to reduce disparities.
Dr. Lucinda Canty is a certified nurse-midwife, Associate Professor of Nursing, and Director of the Seedworks Health Equity in Nursing Program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Columbia University, a master’s degree from Yale University, specializing in nurse-midwifery, and a PhD from the University of Connecticut. Dr. Canty has provided reproductive health care for over 29 years. Her research interests include the prevention of maternal mortality and severe maternal morbidity, reducing racial and ethnic health disparities in reproductive health, promoting diversity in nursing, and eliminating racism in nursing and midwifery.
Dr. Lisa Meeks is a distinguished scholar and leader whose unwavering commitment to inclusivity and excellence has significantly influenced the landscape of health professions education and accessibility. She is the founder and executive director of the DocsWithDisabilities Initiative and holds appointments as an Associate Professor in the Departments of Learning Health Sciences and Family Medicine at the University of Michigan.
Dr. Nikia Grayson, DNP, MSN, MPH, MA, CNM, FNP-C, FACNM (she/her) is a trailblazing force in reproductive justice, blending her expertise as a public health activist, anthropologist, and family nurse-midwife to champion the rights and health of underserved communities. Graduating with distinction from Howard University, Nikia holds a bachelor’s degree in communications and a master’s degree in public health. Her academic journey also led her to the University of Memphis, where she earned a master’s in medical anthropology, and the University of Tennessee, where she achieved both a master’s in nursing and a doctorate in nursing practice. Complementing her extensive education, she completed a post-master’s certificate in midwifery at Frontier Nursing University.
Dr. Tia Brown McNair is the Vice President in the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Student Success and Executive Director for the Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT) Campus Centers at the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) in Washington, DC. She oversees both funded projects and AAC&U’s continuing programs on equity, inclusive excellence, high-impact practices, and student success. McNair directs AAC&U’s Summer Institutes on High-Impact Practices and Student Success, and TRHT Campus Centers and serves as the project director for several AAC&U initiatives, including the development of a TRHT-focused campus climate toolkit. She is the lead author of From Equity Talk to Equity Walk: Expanding Practitioner Knowledge for Racial Justice in Higher Education (January 2020) and Becoming a Student-Ready College: A New Culture of Leadership for Student Success (July 2016 and August 2022 Second edition).
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