Recruitment and retention are pressing challenges in mental health nursing and there are specific barriers to recruitment and retention in forensic inpatient services. One inpatient forensic service in England sought to address these challenges through a preceptorship support project using practice development to engage with mental health nursing students and newly registered mental health nurses. Since the start of the project, 24 newly registered nurses have joined the service and a further 9 joined it in September 2024. Although it is not possible to determine a direct causal relationship, it would appear that the project has enhanced recruitment and retention. Mental health services experiencing recruitment and retention challenges could use a similar method to understand and address the barriers to working in their setting experienced by nursing students and newly registered nurses.