Student Clinical Placements Research Articles

New approaches to learning on clinical placement.

Traditional models of clinical placements for students in speech and language therapy (SLT) are often based on a one-to-one model where the structure of the learning process is: theory, observation and practice. Literature relating to adult learning and professional education suggests alternative approaches to clinical training which may be relevant to SLT. Work in progress is discussed where alternative approaches to placements and student learning in a range of placement settings are being developed.

Student clinical placements give cause for concern

Student clinical placements give cause for concern

A conjoint appointment involving a nursing research management role

Nursing conjoint appointments have taken a number of different forms and included various hospital roles such as ward manager, educator and consultant. This paper discusses an appointment trialed at a lecturer/middle manager level with a functional hospital role of Assistant Director of Nursing (research). The hospital role included activities categorized as: research consultations; research proposal reviews; committee membership; and research project involvement. The academic activities included a half-time teaching load, student clinical placement supervision and thesis/treatise student supervision. The development and implementation of the position, including background, role structure, appointment conditions and work practices are discussed. Issues that were highlighted during the 2 year trial included: the teaching load compared to reimbursement funding; the actual activities involved in the position; the level of appointment required to be most effective in the role; and concomitant university study by the appointee.

A conjoint appointment involving a nursing research management role

Elliot DJ. International Journal of Nursing Practice 1997; 3: 47–52 A conjoint appointment involving a nursing research management role Nursing conjoint appointments have taken a number of different forms and included various hospital roles such as ward manager, educator and consultant. This paper discusses an appointment trialed at a lecturer/middle manager level with a functional hospital role of Assistant Director of Nursing (research). The hospital role included activities categorized as: research consultations; research proposal reviews; committee membership; and research project involvement. The academic activities included a half-time teaching load, student clinical placement supervision and thesis/treatise student supervision. The development and implementation of the position, including background, role structure, appointment conditions and work practices are discussed. Issues that were highlighted during the 2 year trial included: the teaching load compared to reimbursement funding; the actual activities involved in the position; the level of appointment required to be most effective in the role; and concomitant university study by the appointee.

Computer Simulations as a Measure of Nursing Students' Decision-Making Skills

Use of computer simulations was studied as a strategy to evaluate clinical decision-making skills of 64 senior baccalaureate nursing students who were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. All students completed Kolb's Learning Style Inventory, a pre- and posttest that was a computer assisted instruction (CAI) clinical simulation specific to the student's clinical placement, and a 36 item attitudinal and evaluative questionnaire developed for the study. The experimental group complete three additional simulations over a 7 week period. Change scores from pre- and posttests were analyzed to determine: 1) if students completing a CAI series demonstrated higher achievement on information-gathering and decision-making skills than students who did not complete the series; 2) if there was a correlation between achievement and clinical grades; and 3) if there was a relationship between achievement and a particular learning style. Although all students demonstrated that significant learning had occurred during the semester, there was no difference between the students completing the full CAI series and those who did not. Students who made significant improvements in decision-making scores also earned higher clinical grades. Success on the CAI series was found to be independent of learning style. Most students expressed positive attitudes about CAI.

Computer-Assisted Student Clinical Placements

Computer-Assisted Student Clinical Placements

Summer specialty camps: an overlooked site for student nurses' clinical placement.

Summer specialty camps: an overlooked site for student nurses' clinical placement.