It happened to me in the last 2 semesters, having a teacher assistant (TA, BSN prepared) in the clinical with my group of students and sad to say, I did not like it at all. I have nothing personal against TAs. it is just the situation, where I felt like I had another baggage to carry. This last semester, in particular, I had 17 students in the clinical group because I was given a TA with me. Per BON, a Clinical Instructor who has a TA, can have a maximum students of 15. We had 17, so 2 of the students have to be in the sim lab in the school campus everyday.
It is all pretty much disadvantages for me. I tried to orient him (just like students), explained this is what we are going to do. With the number of students we had, I had to share with him the weekly papers and the other homework that students have to do (e.g., a paper about a peer-reviewed article). I check 9 or 10, he'll take the rest. However, what ends up happening is I always have to go over all the papers that he had checked the following week, so I lag behind as far as papers, I lag behind giving students feedback in their paperwork and their progress in the clinical. I had to do this because I want the students to be given the same feedback, the same comments, so they will not be confused. I also feel it is my ultimate responsibility to know how all my students are doing in the clinical, and with 17 it is just too difficult.
By the way, I am with 6th semester BSN generic program and just to let everybody know, last semester we had a total of 80 students in the class with 4 instuctors. The students do 2 rotations a semester, so this was all right (each instructor with 10 students in the clinical). This spring semester however, we had a total of 109 students, with the same 4 instructors plus 2 TAs. This made it a little bit more complicated to say the least.
I am wondering what everybody thinks about having TA? What are your views? Will you consider having a TA with you, if you are asked to? Can't wait to hear what you all have to say.
