The Most Prolific Preceptor

The Most Prolific Preceptor

Maureen Richardson left an indelible mark on hundreds of nurses – and vice versa – in a mentoring career spanning five decades

Maureen Richardson ‘67N, ’89N (MS) first began precepting for nursing students in the mid-1970s. Over the next 44 years, she would mentor dozens of future RNs and nurse practitioners, many of whom would serve as preceptors themselves, putting Richardson at the top of a cascade of compassion that helped fuel the advancement of nursing education and clinical practice in Rochester.

“Every time I’ve had a student, I felt like we were going forward, we’re doing more for the people in this community,” said Richardson, who retired in May after a career that spanned the terms of nine U.S. presidents across six different decades. “It’s a really joyful experience to see them go on to do wonderful things and be a part of that by supporting their learning. Personally, that’s been very rewarding.

“I am also extremely proud of the way the profession has grown and changed during that time. I think the University of Rochester School of Nursing has been a major change agent in that process.”

Richardson has had a front-row seat to those changes, not only as a preceptor for the school for many years, but as a three-time student of its programs. Her first tour as a student in the mid- 1960s began on River Campus and concluded with two years of intensive nursing education at Helen Wood Hall.

“That experience was a real life-changer for me,” she said. “Coming from the university environment, nursing school was very different, way more rigid than the freewheeling life at the university. We all lived in the dorm and took classes there and the hospital was right across the street, so it was all pretty controlled. But I’m still close to the people I went through the program with and I have enormous respect for the instructors I had. They were way ahead of their time.”

After graduating, Richardson and her husband spent two years in Syracuse, where he was in law school, then returned to Rochester and she joined the nursing staff at the new Jordan Health Center. Richardson would spend more than a dozen years at Jordan, earning her NP certificate in pediatric nursing from the UR School of Nursing in 1974. She later earned her master’s in family practice while working at Highland Family Medicine, where she would spend the next 36 years of her professional career.

Soon after earning her NP certificate, Richardson began mentoring others – originally taking in RN students from other local colleges. Later, at Highland Family Medicine, she began precepting for NP students.

Richardson took satisfaction in working one-on-one with other nurses to help them achieve their goals relating to primary care, whatever they might be. She often encouraged students to stay an entire year to get the full grasp of primary care, and many did just that.

“What I learned was that I had to be very clear with them about exactly where they needed to improve or what experience they were coming to get to complete their education. It is important to have discussions to find out their backgrounds and their work and educational experiences. Some were very anxious about the breadth of family-based primary care – it’s a lot to take in. But I always tried to explain that it’s an ongoing process and all of us are continuing to learn, so I would encourage them not to be hard on themselves because it takes a while.”

Maureen Richardson

Lifelong learning was a hallmark of Richardson’s lengthy career. For Richardson, being able to gain new knowledge on other specialties and stay abreast of the newest developments and best practices in the field from those she was herself teaching was an extremely rewarding experience.

“Learning is always a two-way street, and we benefit from the enthusiasm and commitment of the students and in many cases, their own previous expertise,” she said. “The last few years, the quality and character of the students who have come to work with us has been a very enriching experience for us. I hope they would say the same.

“But at my age, it’s time to let the younger people take over and carry on the work.”