Published
"Training" works for me.
They're definitely not "working", as they don't get paid.
And I don't believe they're even "partly" responsible for your patients. That might be a dangerous assumption to make. Maybe you could say their instructor is responsible for any mistakes they make. Maybe.
I believe any malpractice insurance involved is for the instructor and the school. Not for the student. I think the worst that can happen to him is getting kicked out of the program.
As an editor I like to cut unnecessary words. However, for this query I can't come up with a single word to describe both relationship and action. Therefore:
If you are talking about enrolled students on a clinical rotation being supervised by faculty, they are "doing clinical rotations."
If you are taking about an enrolled student who is doing a preceptorship (unpaid) with a staff RN, that's "doing a preceptorship."
I try to avoid the word "training" because of its old-fashioned connotation of when nurses were largely trained by physicians (even in nursing programs) but were not expected to have any basis for independent judgment, e.g., actual education. "Working" implies a paid relationship with an employer.
DemosthenesRN
17 Posts
Those of you who have students in your hospitals, what verb do you use to describe what they do?
Are they "training" ?
"Working" ?
"Practicing" ?
Given that they don't have licenses and aren't receiving pay and yet are partly responsible for their patients and do carry malpractice insurance, I think it's hard to define. I had difficulty understanding the exact parameters of the role throughout the time I was in nursing school, and I want to be able to effectively coach student nurses, so I'd value the group's input.
Anybody have the perfect verb?