issue with clincal manager/sticky

[nurseebol]

I am an adjunct for an LPN program at a comm college. We go to a magnet hospital for some of our rotations. I applied to the floor I teach at in the hospital rotation at their request. I wait two months in the summer while floundering for work, and get a call from the manager. She doesn't like my teaching organization and my interactions with my staff and students. I am very laid back and I know this. But, everything gets done and no one has ever complained like this and I have been doing this for 3 years. I have been friendly with a handful of the nurses who love to teach and they really take the students under their wing. I tend to assign to these nurses because other nurses have given my students very bad experiences. Is this a bad idea? I told my director about everything, and we are going in to meet with this manager about the semester coming. My director said she never got any calls so this concerns her that they said this but coudln't pick a phone up to call her. She thinks this is a personality/unit politics issue. I don't care about not getting a job there, but I need to know what she is specifcally talking about. I asked her for input and thanked her for her words and told her I would use them to grow. I am not afraid to hear what she has to say, but I need to know what exactly she is talking about. Ideas?

[HSRN]

Dear Nurseebol,

It is necessary to have a good rapport with the nursing staff and the nurse manager where you teach because these impact the student's learning experience. The students perception of the nursing staff's attitude toward their presence in the clinical area also affects their learning. Therefore, I feel it is the instructor's responsibilty to make their experience a positive one by making these two ends meet in a collegial way.

I meet with the manager of the unit at least a month before the assignment starts, to give her a background of what type of students are coming and the skills they have learned/learning in the classroom. I also give her a list of the students a couple of weeks before. If I have been there before, I share with her feedback I get from the students. On the first day of clinicals, which is usually for orientation, I invite the manger to speak to the students, a welcome talk and also to tell students her expectations while they are there. For example, care of equipments. I visit the floor a day before the clinical rotation to pick the student's assignments. I read each patient's chart quickly, taking notes on what type of skills my student's can learn from. This summer, we are in the clinical are 3 days in a row, so when patient's are discharged. I coordinate with the charge nurse to find new patients for my students. Every week, I gather feedback from the staff and the manger about the students and also announce to them that my students are looking for certain skills to practice on. This way, my students can benefit to the fullest.

To facilitate communication to staff, I make an assignment sheet that has the day's objective, what skills the students can do, who are giving medications and their room assignments. If their patients get discharged, I update the list. The assignment sheet is posted the day before the students get there. I update the list with the students at the end of the shift

I also keep a log of what skills the students have done, what type of patients/diagnoses and who still lacks certain skills...so that when I make the assignments, I take tose needs into consideration.

I hope my ideas help.

HSRN

[nurseebol]

WOW.

That is really in depth. Though I am teaching at an LPN level, that definately helps. I will actually print what you just wrote and modify your ideas and bring them to the meeting as ideas to get the dialoge rolling.

Now, if the clinical manager can only be receptive, I am hopeful as well. Maybe it has seemed as though I subvert her somehow by making my own observations about the nursing staff and not coming to her when I have an issue with a nurse. This makes sense. I don't like the idea of "telling on" nurses, but I think she wants in the loop more. The problem with her, is her very cold demeanor. But she is who I have to deal with and I am the one who needs to make the effort to intiate and maintain communication.

Keep stuff like this coming. How helpful.

[HSRN]

I am glad you've found my suggestions helpful. My major is nursing education in grad school, learned some principles from there. Your success in teaching depends on you and your innovative efforts to collaborate. You need to have a good rapport with the staff and most of all use the manager's help when you have problems with her staff because she's the one that evaluates them. Don't feel that you are a tattle tale, our goal is to have intelligent nurses join our profession and retain them.

HSRN

[VickyRN, MSN, DNP, RN]

Excellent suggestions and advice, HSRN. We have had repeated issues with one of our clinical facilities (one floor in particular). This place does not provide a good learning experience for our students: the nurses are often openly hostile to the students and are very unprofessional role models. My simple solution (after my one dreadful semester on this floor): I refused to go back. I did this over 3 years ago, and have not regretted it. My director and I opened a whole new clinical site in a small community hospital in my hometown. The students absolutely adore this facility as all the staff are so welcoming.