Post clincal conference topic ideas

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Does anyone have ideas for post clinical conference for an ADN program. I kind of just went with whatever I could come up with with my last group of students, but would like something more structured this time around. I have a few ideas, but not exactly sure how to set them up at this time. If I can get through this week (2 days of post clinical, and I have something for one day), I will have spring break to get the last ones set up. I am new to this, so any help would be greatly appreciated

Vickie

Specializes in OB, Midwifery, GYN, Mgmt, Military.

I have a aquestion for educators. I am new also, this year. I am a Certified Nurse Midwive and took on Maternal Child Health. well the OB portion was great, and I am still riding high on how well the students got it. But now the peds portions starts and I am scared to death. They are not going to get the best...what can i do?

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Specializes in M/S, dialysis, home health, SNF.

May I just interject here, and give a perspective as a floor nurse who sees lots of students. One of my fears is their lack of critical thinking, simple things like giving 2 beta blockers and 1 ACE inhibitor to a patient whose BP is already 77/48.

One thing I did not get in my ADN program, which I wish I had, was the correlation between things like labs (all I knew coming out of school was the parameters for anemia) and the pt's condition, plus more on drugs.

On this subject, I'd like to ask the instructors here: I still struggle with ABG values. Do you know of any resources that can help me understand this bette?

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Specializes in Pediatrics.
May I just interject here, and give a perspective as a floor nurse who sees lots of students. One of my fears is their lack of critical thinking, simple things like giving 2 beta blockers and 1 ACE inhibitor to a patient whose BP is already 77/48.

One thing I did not get in my ADN program, which I wish I had, was the correlation between things like labs (all I knew coming out of school was the parameters for anemia) and the pt's condition, plus more on drugs.

On this subject, I'd like to ask the instructors here: I still struggle with ABG values. Do you know of any resources that can help me understand this bette?

You are sooo on point here, it's not funny. The drug thing is one of my pet peeves. I teach second semester clinicals, where they have not had the didactic component of HTN or pharmacology. So there is a lot of impromptu post-conference 'lectures' on action, onset, peak and duration of meds.

I started back in clinicals this week (after a semester in skills lab), and I really did miss it (for the most part). I have to say, there is a LOT you can do with them, but it takes a while to become creative and think 'out of the box'. At least for me, it did. And it is also difficult to keep the students interested. It seems that many of them seem to think that when the physical floor work is done, it is time to go home. When they are in it, they rarely see the value of the post conference.

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Specializes in M/S, dialysis, home health, SNF.

Send them to the forum!!! :)

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Specializes in DOU.

Speaking as a student, I was placed on a telemetry floor before we had the cardiac unit in class. I worried every single day we had clinicals that my patients would get into trouble and I wouldn't be able to tell quickly enough. It would have been great if in post conference, we were given some idea of what was a clear problem and what was not. Some of my patients had outrageously low blood pressures (kept so on purpose) but it was sure scary for me!

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Specializes in M/S, dialysis, home health, SNF.

My understanding is that as a student, your instructor is ultimately responsible for you. The RN who has the patient is ultimately responsible for the patient.

I have seen instructors disappear for what seems the entire day, expecting the RN to fill in as instructor, coach, mentor, as well as take care of her patients. That isn't fair either, to nurses or students.

Then again, I've also seen students disappear to the break room, ignoring their assigned patients once the meds were passed.

Certainly the RN is a good source of information, but one student was assigned to all 5 of my patients and wanted me to go slowly, giving details of every assessment, every med - that doesn't work.

You're right to be concerned about the patient, but right now your main concern is to learn. You aren't an RN yet and it is not ultimately your sole responsibility. So, try to relax and soak up all you can.

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Specializes in DOU.

Good point, KLKRN, and thank you.

Your students follow you around while you do assessments? Whoa! I don't really see the RN in charge of my patients much at all during the day, and since I am giving all the meds except IV push, I have to know what they are for and how they work before I give them. I do a full assessment and document it. The most I've really seen the nurse do beyond that is to listen to the patient's heart and lungs, unless they are going in when I am on my lunch break. If I have questions, I go to my clinincal instructor so I don't bother the nurse.

It would be great to have someone to work with more closely. Your students must really enjoy working with you!

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Specializes in M/S, dialysis, home health, SNF.

Well, some do, because I express my feelings about the need for critical thinking and I teach as I do things like dressing changes, etc. What I mostly do is "see this? don't ever do that. here's why."

They may enjoy it, but it is quite a burden at times. In the particular hospital where I find the most students, it's a small rural place with three different classes of students at one time. Oy. One of my biggest challenges is to make sure we're all on the same page, to make sure no patient gets double-dosed, etc.

I don't plan on going to that hospital much in the future because I am so concerned about how the program is run (or not) and the liability issues involved.

I can't imagine a nurse expecting students to carry the ball - scratch that; I have seen it. But liability was drilled into me in my nursing program, and I have a strong sense of responsibility. If it's my patient, I'm ultimately responsible for his/her care. That's the bottom line.

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Specializes in DOU.

I can't imagine a nurse expecting students to carry the ball - scratch that; I have seen it. But liability was drilled into me in my nursing program, and I have a strong sense of responsibility. If it's my patient, I'm ultimately responsible for his/her care. That's the bottom line.

Do the nurses have the right to limit the number of students they will work with? Can they refuse students all together?

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Specializes in M/S, dialysis, home health, SNF.

My own experience was that the interaction in my clinicals was with the instructor, not the RN. IN another hospital I've worked, that's how it works. The students do what they do under the direction of the instructor. The instructor finds the RN for that pt and says, "this student will pass the meds on this patient." And that's all I see of them. Period.

This is how it was when I was a student.

But this little place has many issues beyond this one, and liability concerns have made me decide it's not worth going there anymore. As a registry nurse, I have the option of saying: I'm not going there. I'll schedule myself somewhere else.

Which is what I've made up my mind to do.

First of all, no hospital has any business expecting a registry nurse (although they know me well there because I work there regularly) to take on the responsibility that belongs to a nursing instructor, to teach a group of students who are assigned to her patients, or be responsible for them throughout the day.

I have been interrupted as many as 6 times in one shift by students wanting me to "give them report" on my patients that were assigned to them. When I asked one student, "have you looked at the chart?" he looked at me like I was crazy- of course not! Why would he do that when he can ask me to give him report?

I have some really strong feelings about people who want others to do their thinking for them and spoon feed them

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Specializes in Pediatrics.
Do the nurses have the right to limit the number of students they will work with? Can they refuse students all together?

No. If the students are in the hospital, it is most likely a teaching hospital (not always, I know), and this is what you have to deal with. I'm sure a nurse can refuse (or strongly request) that a student not follow them, as in without their instructor (if it is an observation type of clinical, or a one-on-one). The reality is, the student is better off not being with that nurse, if the nurse feels this way about students.

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Specializes in M/S, dialysis, home health, SNF.

And I agree that students shouldn't be with a nurse that feels overwhelmed by them as I do at that hospital.

Let me ask you this: is it typical for your students to get report from the RN on the patients they are assigned to, or are they asked to look at the chart and be prepared? When I was in nursing school, I was required to go look at the chart the day before, sit in on report with everyone else, and be prepared when I got there.

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