Abstract
This phenomenological study explored the interactions between new nursing graduate orientees and their preceptors during the orientees' professional orientation. Six themes of caring and four themes of noncaring preceptor behaviors emerged through participants' journals and interviews. The six themes of caring preceptor behaviors included advocating, welcoming, including, autonomy with appropriate preceptor presence, making human connections, and genuine feedback. Four themes emerged indicating noncaring preceptor behaviors and included unwelcoming, autonomy with preceptor overpresence or underpresence, and nongenuine feedback.