Clinical Rotations

[Nanz_B]

We have a group of students dong their clinical rotation on our floor. I'm curious. How do nursing instructors handle the student assignments on your floor? Does she assign the students to a particular patient? Does she assign the student to a nurse? I must say that as a student I loved the idea of shadowing a nurse but now that I am on the other side - not as much. On my floor, she does both...she works with one student and they do meds together. But, her expectation of the nurses are to allow the students to give meds with the nurse that they are following. What are your thoughts on this? I'm kind of a control freak and I like to move swiftly...I know that I am probably being a "B" but the student really slows me down.

[BSNbeauty, BSN, RN]

Sometimes I have students shadow me and other times the student will work 1:1 with the instructor. They together will do an assessment, medication, documentation and etc. I'm very protective of my patients so I always make sure that I do my assessment and round on them as I usually would. I also document my own assessment. I have no problem with the students giving medications as long as their are directed under their instructor. My job lies with the patient not the students. If there is spare time, I have no problem teaching.

[firstinfamily, RN]

Usually the clinical instructor is the one in charge of the students, she does the medications with them. She usually clarifies with the floor nurse what time/med round they will do. They do not do all the med rounds. I do my own assessment and documentation. If the students have questions I will try to answer them or refer them to their instructor. If the instructor has not approached me and informed me that the students are giving meds then I do my own medications. The instructor is really responsible for the students, I am responsible for the patient, I usually follow them closely and try to stay out of their way. If there is something that needs to be done and they have not approached me about it then I go ahead and do it. I don't have time to check with the instructor every single time, so I expect them to come to the staff nurse and let the nurse know what they are planning to do.

[Wile E Coyote, ASN, RN]

In my critical care environment, bsn capstone students rotate through in 2 or 3 week blocks, individually paired with a staff RN who precepts them. The instructor is not on site. A local adn program has a gaggle of students come through and each one will follow an assigned nurse. The instructor is on the unit and thus has much more control and accountability in real-time.

[AnnieOaklyRN, BSN, RN, EMT-P]

I work in an ED so we generally don't see nursing students on a regular basis; however when I was in nursing school we always got assigned 1-2 patients and the instructor would do medications with all of us. She would just coordinate times so that we weren't all trying to get her at once for meds. I think having your own patient (not technically your own, but you get the idea) or patients as a nursing student is a far more effective way to learn than shadowing a nurse, just my opinion.

HPRN