Clinical supervision by instructors

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I am noticing a trend in many postings. I have seen numerous posts that mention that you only see your clinical instructors at the beginning and the end of the day. Wow. I am on the floor every hour, checking with my students, offering help with procedures, and discussing care and how things are progressing. I don't hover or stalk them (ha! I always hated that) but want them to know I am available if needed. Is this common, having an instructor that disappears? When I was in school, it was around half and half- some spent a lot of time with us, and others were never seen again until clinical conference. I have always thought that you would want a good balance between being available, but not constantly hovering around making students nervous. Your thoughts on the amount of clinical supervision you've encountered? Enough, too much, nonexistant?

Ummm. . . Well let me just say that I have a very overbearing and sneaky CI. She is EVERYWHERE ALL THE TIME with her beaty little eyes! Can you tell she drives me crazy? lol She is like that with everyone- she pushes us VERY hard to know everything all the time and to read her mind. If I can only make it through the rest of the program I know I'll be a better nurse in the long run. . . for her being such a hard a@@ that is.

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So far, my instructors have always been available. We usually have about 6 students per group so if she's in a pt's room with another student, she might be hard to find, but we know she's there. In those cases I would either wait or ask the nurse assigned to my pt for help, depending on the situation. I definitely don't like hovering. That makes me more nervous and my brain tends to go blank! lol

Something I found interesting in reading these replies was that some schools have students on different floors with the same instructor. That doesn't make sense to me. When we have rotations, there is a specific instructor for that particular rotation. For example, I'm on a pulmonary floor for my usual assignment, but when I was rotated to L&D there is a L&D instructor that was there for those of us rotated to that area. On those days, I don't even see my floor or my usual instructor.

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Specializes in ED.

I haven't had a problem with them disappearing at all. It does seem though (I imagine this happens everywhere) that if they aren't around they are usually busy with needy students. Our ratio is usually 10:1 so it's hard for one person to be on top of everybody.

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Specializes in Ortho, Neuro, Detox, Tele.

Now, my CIs were ALWAYS on the floor...we took lunches together as a group, and she was the ONLY one who could get medications out of the pyxis....

1st year, CIs had to check all our medications with us, AND go with us to do anything IV.....although, once we proved when knew how to push IV or hang a piggyback, we were allowed to do them independently.

during my last year, we did lots of medications with instructors, and were expected to inform them if there was anything out of the ordinary with a patient...

then we went to LTC, our instructor was there but we were leaders with 2 other students and expected, between the 3 of us to provide TOTAL care with 12-15 residents.....and get all meds/treatments done....it was very helpful in learning how to do things....

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Specializes in ER, ICU, Education.

tiggerdagibit, for my students, they are all in the same rotation, but on different floors. It is a very large hospital with two med/surg floors, two ICU floors, etc, so my peds group goes to many different areas, all on different floors. Lots of running up and down stairs!

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I've only had one instructor that hovered over my shoulder, watched me do everything (even things not directly related to nursing skills), and made me SO nervous that everything I did was with shaking hands. (I also have to mention, this instructor gave me an "unsatisfactory" grade in clinicals because they said I had no confidence and wasn't able to organize myself... and every other instructor before and after that one have said I have no problems with organization.... so.....)

My other instructors have been great. They are always available and always on the floor - we can come to them any time and ask them for help. They'll come around and check meds with everyone, make sure we're doing ok, etc. They're willing to spend any amount of time with us, but only when we ask them to.

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tiggerdagibit, for my students, they are all in the same rotation, but on different floors. It is a very large hospital with two med/surg floors, two ICU floors, etc, so my peds group goes to many different areas, all on different floors. Lots of running up and down stairs!

That is so interesting! The 2 hospitals that we use for clinicals are also large.. 850-900 beds plus one of them has a dedicated children's hospital in it. I can't imagine being separated from my clinical group on different floors! I'd feel so alone. lol

btw.. I just wanted to say that I LOVE that you are here asking students for their opinions. I wish more instructors would do that!

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