CLINICAL INSTRUCTION
Students sometimes experience a cultural shock when they are placed in a clinical environment. How do instructors prepare them for dealing with employees in the clinical setting? Especially those who are not student friendly.
My students perform in the health care environment. We do case studies and practice skills in lab, but actually going into a patient's room makes them aware of the reality.
To ease this, I will perform the first assessment and treatment so the student can see how I work with the patient in that environment, then the student gets to perform with the next patient.
Michael, it is great that you are demonstrating both communication and procedural skills to your learners first. Some do get caught up in only the technical piece, so they miss the human piece. Your students are fortunate to have you.
Michele Deck
We have gone on several field trips where the students can see the real world setting. The employees usually give the students lots of examples and let them have a Q&A session also.
Rachel, this can also create interest and excitement about the job the students will be doing after they complete our program.
Michele Deck
Even though skills are practices in the lab, they never seem prepared for what they encounter in the field. I try to prepare the student's before we actually start patient care. We physically walk thru the facility, and the activities of the day. They meet their pt., then prepare as fully as possible thru paper work; work sheets, care plans and pathophysiologys specific to the person. As we add tasks I walk them thru those. The entire clinical group does not add tasks the same day, so I'm available for what ever is needed.
Our students' first clinical assignment is a special "Integrated Clinical assignment" (I.C.) Like other Integrated Clinical assignments, these are one day per week (along with 4 days of didactic.) The difference in the first I.C.: it is purely observational with no graded competencies. [Introduction to clinical world without the performance pressure.]
We often use students from other classes or programs as our patients. This allows for the clinical students to work with someone other then their own classmates, which gives them the feel of a real life patient and scenario.
