Nursing Faculty and Students on Clinical Rotations

Students, Instructors, and Hospitals Stay on Top of their Clinical Rotations with NurseMind

Clinical rotations are the most valuable part of the nursing school experience yet they are also extraordinarily stressful for the students, frantic for the instructors, and demanding of the hospitals in which they occur.  Here's how NurseMind supports all three.

Benefits for Hospitals Benefits for Instructors Benefits for Students
  • Hospital management is more willing to book clinical rotations by schools that use NurseMind because they can be confident of a higher level of care from the nursing students. The to-do list feature ensures that no nursing care is missed.
  • Hospitals can be confident of a higher degree of oversight of nursing students by instructors. 
  • Hospitals can, if they wish, have some input into the content of the nursing care performed by students on their shifts.
  • Communication of expectations for clinical performance can be precise. The instructor is supported in effectively communicating exactly what performance criteria he hopes his students satisfy on their rotations. He can say exactly what he wants to see students accomplish and when.
  • Criteria become clear, objective and measurable.
  • Planned feature:  The Real-Time Monitor enables the instructor to see at a glance who is present. Each student signs in on the app when she starts her shift. The students are then listed on the display for the instructor to see.
  • The Real-Time Monitor also enables the instructor to see how the students are progresssing. Each student's status panel is displayed. It shows how many tasks remain to be done, how much time that will take, and whether the remaining time suffices. If it doesn't -- the student is falling behind -- that student's status panel turns red. The instructor can now be proactive, find the student, and help him get back on track.
  • For the student, it is a challenge to translate from the lecture hall to the hospital floor -- "I get the theory, but in practice exactly what is expected of me?"  Shift and protocol definitions in the app combine to provide to the student timed task lists that enable her to know exactly what actions are expected and when.
  • The student can be sure he has forgotten nothing. Task icons turn red when they're late and the count of undone tasks doesn't go to zero until they're all done. When it does go to zero, the student can be confident that she has remembered everything.
  • Student stress is reduced by confidence that expectations are being met.

 

How It Works

  • For example, if the instructor expects the students to look up the meds to be administered to each patient, the student's "shift definition" would start with the following "per-patient" tasks:
    + Obtain the med-orders part of the patient's chart.
    + List the meds to be administered on this shift.
    + For each, list possible adverse effects.
    If the student had two patients on her shift, each of these tasks would appear twice on her to-do list.  If the deadline for them was 40 minutes after the start of the shift, then at 41 minutes the instructor could reasonably expect that the student could demonstrate knowledge of potential adverse effects of the meds she'll administer on the shift.
  • Some of a student's patients might have conditions that demand additional tasks, for example diabetes care.  By defining the tasks in a diabetes protocol, the instructor can be certain that the student understands exactly what's expected of her in providing this aspect of this patient's care.  For example, for the diabetic patient, the protocol -- whose deadline might be 20 minutes before each meal -- might consist of the following tasks:
    + Look up the insulin type and dosage protocol for the patient.
    + Measure the patient's blood glucose.
    + Draw up the appropriate number of units of the appropriate type of insulin.
    + Have another nurse double-check the type and dose.
    + Administer the insulin.

Here is a typical shift definition for a nursing student on a med-surg rotation:

Shift Tasks Deadline
(minutes after
start of shift)		 Duration
(minutes)
 
Generic
8-hr
Med-Surg
7 a.m.
Day Shift		 Update patient whiteboard 30 1
Care plan 30 5
Get Report 30 5
Physical Assessment 60 10
Hourly Pt rounds 60 5
Vital signs 60 2
Breakfast tray setup 90 2
Hourly Pt rounds 120 5
Medication administration 120 5
Nursing Work Meal Break 180 30
Hourly Pt rounds 180 5
Hourly Pt rounds 240 5
Assess patient acuity/stability 240 1
Lunch tray setup 270 1
Vital signs 300 2
Nursing Work Short Break 300 15
Hourly Pt rounds 300 5
Medication administration 360 5
Hourly Pt rounds 360 5
Hourly Pt rounds 420 5
Hourly Pt rounds 480 5
8 hour Documentation 480 15