Student clinicals

World International

Published

Hi, everyone. I'm curious to know what student and experienced nurses think of the amount of practical experience students get. I realise that there is alot of theory to get through but I also think that more pracs would be of enormous benefit, even if it's just in the simulated wards. Am I being unrealistic? What do others think?:nurse:

Specializes in Aged care.

I guess it all depends where you live. Obviously we don't have a lot of choice here on the Fraser Coast. For example, I think the nearest psychiatric facility is at Toowoomba, which meant that for mental health clinicals students had to do a second 'tour' at an aged care facility in the dementia ward. This was also partly because some local facilitators had pulled out, so once again it comes down to staffing and locale!

BTW thanks for all your input, everyone. I'm really enjoying reading about everyone's experiences, and it's making me even keener to get out there! :-)

Specializes in Aged Care.

Doing Cert III in Aged care, we only do 1 week clinical placement... it scares the hell out of me!!!!

But everyone has to start somewhere. It's the old thing of "can't get a job without experience, but can't can't experience without a job"

To those of you who feel unsupported by the RNs on your placements I would like to remind you that teaching and supporting students isn't part of their job

Actually, I interpret the ACNM's code of professional conduct to incorporate this in Conduct Statement 10

"Nurses practise nursing reflectively and ethically"

4. Nurses contribute to the professional development of students and colleagues.

However, it is always nice to be placed with a preceptor... they do know how to teach what we need to know!

I am in Brisbane and am based at the Mater Hospital South Brisbane. The students in my group have not come across nurses and midwives who are nothing but accepting of students, always willing to give us a chance to participate.

Specializes in Aged care.

I haven't had much contact with RNs as my only placement so far has been at an aged care facility where we worked under PCs & ENs most of the time. However, the RNs I did meet were always helpful & supportive. I just wish there were more opportunities to be in a clinical setting. I was talking to my Aunt recently- she went through the old way, about 40 years ago- and she said that although they had alot of practical experience and were pretty much thrown in at the deep end, she wished she'd had the opportunity to learn what we do now, with so much more knowledge available to us. That kind of put it into perspective for me, and I'll try to remember that when I'm complaining about the lack of clinical time! Mind you, she also said she wouldn't have swapped her experiences for the world :-)

+ Add a Comment