Both nursing education and nursing service are concerned about the disillusionment and frustration of new graduates when they enter the work world. Kramer describes this phenomenon as "reality shock"(1). One way to prevent and ease the impact of reality shock is to expose nursing students to the "real world" of nursing while they are students. Preceptorships are one way to accomplish this goal. Kramer designed and tested an anticipatory socialization program to help students in their transition from student to graduate nurse(2). We have adapted Kramer's suggestions and used them as the foundation for our preceptorship program at Capital University School of Nursing. Although the idea of preceptorship is not new, it has been used most often with students in community health nursing or in the practitioner role. We use it in an acute care setting. At Capital University School of Nursing, the preceptorships were developed by the faculty as part of the final course in the curriculum. The intent of this course, entitled Professional Enrichment, is to help students build confidence, to increase their level of independent functioning and sense of accountability, and to help them deal effectively with professional-bureaucratic conflicts. A preceptorship is an individualized teaching/learning method. Each student is assigned to a particular preceptor for the entire three-