Question from a staff nurse

[GeriRN17]

Hi students! Hopefully your semesters ended well and you are loving nursing school as much as possible considering the significant stress it can cause!

I’m an RN in home care and I’ll be precepting a student next week for her community health rotation. I love students and actually poached her from a nurse who works in the office to try to give her a more realistic view of community health. So my question is: what’s something you wish the nurse you were with did that would help you learn? She’s bringing me a list of what she’s allowed to do and I want to give her a good experience. I volunteered for this because, as I said, I love having students and in home health I have more time to show her things. Advice from other nurses is, as always, welcome too! I haven’t had a student since I was a new grad on a med surg floor

Thanks!

[TheDudeWithTheBigDog, ADN, RN]

So far my biggest complaint about my clinicals is that there's so much to do, but barely any opportunities to do it. I know the point is to only know things at a basic level, but it seems like a waste to not be able to use those chances to build competency before graduating.

So my suggestion for precepting her, is everything she's allowed to do, have her do it, and be engaging, let her see this as a nurse, and push her to knowing why everything is being done. Basically, where her school is teaching her to pass the test, teach her to be a nurse. Because I know for me, in clinical, we're so restricted that 99% of our day is just being a glorified CNA.

[MotoMonkey, BSN, RN]

I totally agree with Tonyl1234, let them do as much as they can.

I am finishing my final practicum right now and I am extremely grateful for my preceptor. He has to supervise a lot of what I do, but as much as possible he sits back and allows me to take the reigns with the patient group. For me this means doing all of the charting, med pass, interventions, planning, talking with family, as well as talking with providers and other members of the healthcare team. Even when I am struggling or frustrated he lets me work through it and only intervenes when I ask for help. Allowing me to feel uncomfortable and to struggle has helped me to develop as an emerging nurse and has helped me to learn so much about time management, prioritization, and what being a nurse in this setting actually entails.

I guess what I am trying to get at by giving my own example is to let the student, as much as possible and as much as you are comfortable, be the nurse. Let them experience all the little things that go into being a nurse in this setting, let them feel uncomfortable and let them struggle a little before you intervene. But also debrief after these moments, I think that is where a lot of great learning happens.

Lastly, thank you for being excited to take a student. It makes a huge difference to have someone that wants to teach us and is mindful of our learning experience.