i am a nursing professor, i am thinking of conducting a study on the benefits of clinical post-conferences.
i hated post-conferences as a student (25 years ago) and my feelings have not changed. i see nursing students who come to post-conferences wanting nothing more than to go home. i know i'm burned out, especially when i have two clinicals in a row. i understand a colleague of mine is instituting a 2-hour post-conference for our students--that means the clinical instructor will give another 2 hours of some sort of instruction after the students have had 8 hours of direct patient care. i believe this is asking too much of our students.
now, i know nursing scholars and faculty members who will recoil when they read that i think post-conferences need to go away. isn't that how change begins?
take a stand and say "no more." nursing students have changed so dramatically over the years, someone must take this into consideration. how many are single parents or work full time? patient acuity has changed leaving students drained at the end of the day.
as a nurse, i was exhausted after an 8 hour shift (or 12) and could not give another 2 hours to anyone, i wanted to go home. i believe debriefing is warranted after a simulation but not in the clinical setting. what do you think?