Twice a week, I go out of the classroom to be with my students in their Related Learning Experience (RLE) or clinical practice. Their RLE is conducted in a health care facility such as a hospital or a health center. Second year (Level II) nursing students are required to spent at least 306 hours in a semester to complete their RLE. Here, my students act like real nurses to hone their skills, apply their knowledge learned inside the classroom. Skills are put into practice plus they have to follow the right attitude of being a nurse.
The basic skill that I teach them is how to communicate with clients and experience on how to establish a constructive nurse-client relationship. Armed with the knowledge of communication techniques, they have to collect data from clients as a primary step in the nursing process. The approach is always to utilize the nursing process in caring for clients across the lifespan.
Simple skills such as proper identification of clients, vital signs, documentation, taking the nursing health history with emphasis on the Gordon’s Health Patterns, performing physical assessment are more than enough to get them busy.
One hour is also spent in the discussion of the overall experience of the day, their insights and reflection on the nursing interventions they have performed. The final documentation of their activity is then written as their nursing care plan.
Each student has his or her own personality. I have to blend with them not to adhere to their own wishes but as an approach in motivating them to develop a friendly and caring attitude to their clients. And the most salable way is that they learn a new skill or acquired knowledge on that RLE duty day.
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