New clinical instructor for ob/peds advice

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To all nursing students, I am a new clinical instructor to ob/peds. I do have experience in the field. I wanted to know what was helpful for you as nursing students in clinical to know. Also any thing that you liked or disliked regarding your clinical instructors. Any information would be appreciated. My nursing students are depending on you.

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To all nursing students, I am a new clinical instructor to ob/peds. I do have experience in the field. I wanted to know what was helpful for you as nursing students in clinical to know. Also any thing that you liked or disliked regarding your clinical instructors. Any information would be appreciated. My nursing students are depending on you.

First off I would like to commend you for asking our opinions! It shows you care and I think you'll be a terrific instructor.

Things we like/need or find helpful:

1. instructors who have a positive attitude

2. understanding that it may take more than just 1x of explaining something to us before we completely understand. (repetition is a great thing! just imagine learning 100 different things at once under the expectation we must remember it all)

3. PATIENCE

Things we dislike or find unhelpful:

1. raising your voice to us (we are not children)

2. speaking in a condescending tone (again, we are not children)

3. expecting expert decision making/skill performance (we are students for goodness sakes)

It would be my hope that instructors approach their job as teacher in the professional manner they approach their patients.

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Thank you for your input. I couldn't agree more with all you have said. I remember what it was like to be a student. Unfortunately, I had terrible clinical instructors. They terrified me! I don't want to be like that.

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If you feel that one of your students has a weakness that needs to be improved, tell the student BEFORE THE END OF THE TERM. That way, the student knows what he/she needs to work on and can improve.

My instructor last semester had a whole laundry list of things she thought I needed to work on, problem was, she didn't inform me until the last week of the term!! How am I supposed to improve if I don't know what I'm doing wrong?

Good luck, I wish I had you as an instructor!!

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Scout out the nurses ahead of time and see which ones are agreeable to having students. Also, be sure there are things for the students to do, I remember a lot of sitting around time during my ob rotation.

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I would suggest informing the students of what you like like them to do when there is down time. When I was on OB, our clinical instructor gave us tasks to do for the day if we had no patients or if it was a slow period (which was almost every day on that unit). One of the things we were allowed to do was quiz each other on OB NCLEX questions. Sometimes we were given a topic to review, such as preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, etc., and we had to present it to the group in post conference.

I also liked that our clinical instructor had us practice sterile gowning and gloving at the hospital right before the rotation started. She asked us to keep practicing until we were really comfortable with it. When we went in to c-sections, the anxiety of trying to do it perfectly was greatly reduced.

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Be Kind and Compassionate- it can be scary for us.

Be There to Listen and give those little tricks of the trade.

Some might disagree with me on this one but:

DRILL US! I love when my instructors force me to use my critical thinking skills and ask me why why why?!?

It might be scary and intimidating at times but to really advance us as professionals and critical thinkers, I believe it is necessary.

Just feel out your students- talk to them and see what they need. You're a nurse, you know to talk to ppl to understand their needs.

Good Luck!

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I would suggest informing the students of what you like like them to do when there is down time. When I was on OB, our clinical instructor gave us tasks to do for the day if we had no patients or if it was a slow period (which was almost every day on that unit). One of the things we were allowed to do was quiz each other on OB NCLEX questions. Sometimes we were given a topic to review, such as preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, etc., and we had to present it to the group in post conference.

I also liked that our clinical instructor had us practice sterile gowning and gloving at the hospital right before the rotation started. She asked us to keep practicing until we were really comfortable with it. When we went in to c-sections, the anxiety of trying to do it perfectly was greatly reduced.

I really like your ideas... as a student, it is really hard sometimes to just "try to look busy" when everyone there knows there is absolutely nothing do do. Much better to use the time productively!

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As you know OB can be very slow at times and I think we had clinical every week during the slow time. So instead of having us do busy work or stand around and hold the wall up, our clinical instructor would do senarios with us. I thought this was great because it gave us a chance to practice our skills even though we didn't always have patients. She also did drug reviews during post conference, which was great also becuase we had to get checked off on many medications that we never got the opportunity to give. So there are a few of my suggestions, hope these help you out. Good luck and don't let those whiny students push you around...lol.

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Specializes in Med/Surg ICU, NICU.

I agree with the other poster when they suggest that you scout out nurses that are willing to have students. My very first clinical ever the nurse I was assigned to on a post partum floor was standing there and when my clinical instructor introduced me as the student nurse that would be with her that day her statement was "great, just what I need" the instructor left me with her and needless to say it was a miserable experience that ended with the nurse leaving me sitting in a cubicle alone doing nothing.

My last OB instructor realized that we would have periods of down time and planned additional teaching sessions for us about decels ect. She also brought in a show that she had taped off of I believe Discovery channel called Birth Around the World. It showed the different methods of childbirth used in Afghanistan(sp?), Japan, Africa among others. It was very interesting and something that everyone in our class enjoyed watching.

Lastly, please be accepting that not all of the students want to be L&D nurses. While every student should always give 100% in each clinical rotation it is just not everyone's cup of tea.

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Specializes in Med/Surg <1; Epic Certified <1.

We didn't have an OB rotation, but from a student's perspective, something that has been bothering me a lot today might be helpful:

My first semester instructor was pretty worthless, which is really sad since that's when a lot of teaching would've been helpful. She had little patience, didn't take the time to really teach us assessments, tips and tricks, etc. My next two CIs were pretty awesome, but VERY laid back and didn't require a lot of extra from us.

Now that I'm in my last semester, I am finding I got shortchanged a hair....while my last two instructors were patient, kind, non-threatening and just wonderful, they had very lax attitudes about paperwork, care plans, post-clinicals, etc. I seldom got quizzed at the Pyxis about the meds I was pulling. That was great at the time, but it has finally come back to haunt me.

My current CI is an old head who believes in good care plans and knowing your meds (imagine that?). She's thorough and I have been petrified she'll figure out I've "skated by". I wish our past groups had been held up to some higher standards in the past.

That being said, I'm actually doing fine 3 weeks in; it's just the abject fear. I don't think we were done a favor in the past overall.

I say, help them learn, do it kindly, and have high expectations at the same time. Don't have favorites; make them know their stuff within the confines of what their classroom learning has consisted of thus far. Have some good pre- and/or post-clinicals assignments, quizzes, or learning exercises (for fun -- not a grade).

And the kindest words I heard during clinicals, a couple of times over while I was beating myself up: "You are still a student; you will be fine!"

Best wishes!!!

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