Let’s Practice

Your student is falling behind. Numerous medications are overdue and you notice she is starting to get overwhelmed. What type of feedback would be most effective in this case?

1. “You’re getting behind. Why don’t you let me take over a couple of your patients.”

2. Wait an hour or so to see if she realizes she is behind - if she’s still behind, start taking over and say “What you’re doing is unsafe. You can’t let this happen again. I’ll help you catch up, but you’re going to have to learn how to do this on your own soon.”

3. “I see that you’re taking on quite a busy load of patients. I really liked how you spent your time in that patient’s room to explain the procedure. I’m noticing that there are some medications that are overdue, however. How do you think you can prevent stressful situations like this in the future?”

Goals

• Increased quality of patient care overall

• Student presence becomes the norm

• Minimize transition shock

• Improve retention of novice RNs

• Reduce the gap between practice & academia