PN Instructor wants advice

[new instructor]

I will be starting my first "teaching" job in April 2010 and would like some advice or suggestions.

I welcome any LPN student, past student, or other clinical instructor to offer suggestions on how to make the clinical experiences more productive. I will be teaching a 7-hour clinical to PN students and would like to know what you all think about clinical hours. I don't want my students to feel they are wasting their time. I want them to learn and to enjoy their clinical experience. So. . . .Send me a note or even a list. I want to know what you think would make clinicals more productive and educational.

Thanks in advance to anyone and everyone who responds!

New Instructor

[pagandeva2000, LPN]

Welcome! I think it would be a great idea to teach your students how to research for what information they need on line. I have a few web sites that I use to look up medications, diagnostic tests, nutrition, etc...but I have to post again when I get home.

I have discovered that when I see a diagnostic test I am not familiar with, but have to teach a patient what to expect in a pinch (and familiarize myself), that has been a God-send. Also, it may be good to give them a sort of cheat sheet or check off sheet of what information is pertinent when presenting a situation to the RN or physician. An example of that is I created one in my GYN clinic that lists the medical record number, age, if she is pregnant, how many weeks, brief history, last visit, etc... It helped me to build my confidence and not look like such a boob-tube when presenting the situation to someone else. I made many copies of it and use it each time I speak to a physician. It got to the point where the physicians I usually work with thought that my form was a standard thing...LOL. They started saying to the other nurses "Where is that paper?".

I created this for each clinic I have floated to, and this is a help. If you choose to present this to your students, it can be a brief introduction-like a tidbit to make their lives a bit easier. I'll get those other sites to you a bit later and congrats on the new position!

[Ericad85]

Hello! I am a new student I started in September and my instructor is really great! As far as clinical as you know, in the beginning we as students are very limited to do certain things right now and it can get sort of repetetive the work we do in the beginning...however, my clinical instructor is always finding things for us to observe for example, she straight catheterized a patient we watched, she went through all the steps, she packed a stage 4 Decubitus ulcer we got to watch, New amputee dressing change things like that although that is not yet in our scope of practice as we are still learning, she always trys to include us and we all find it so interesting!!!! goodluck with your new class :)

[new instructor]

pagandeva2000 - Thank you for your suggestions. I will check back later to see if you have to links posted yet. I too use a sort of "cheat sheet" when calling consults to specialists. That will be a good tool to pass on.

Ericad85 - Thanks for your input. I guess it is good to watch even if you are not at the place in your education where you can actually do the work yourself yet. I will keep that in mind. I just don't want to have the PN students doing a bunch of STNA work like baths and vitals. They all had to go through the STNA course and pass it before applying for the PN program. I feel they already know how to give baths and shouldn't spend their very limited clinical time doing things they are already competent in. I will definitely find things they can observe.

Karen