For some student nurses, heading into practice for the first time can be a daunting experience with their head swimming with expectations and questions. You may be experiencing the workplace for the first time and might be unsure about what’s expected of you.
- Originally published 10th October, 2011
‘We’re on placement to learn, not just to make up the numbers’ | Blog | Nursing Times
Fundamentally we are students and must use the time we have in placement to learn about the process of your placement and to achieve your learning goals as defined by your University.
You are not a member of their staff and as such are not there to make up their numbers.
With that said, that shouldn’t be a line you bleat out on command as an instinctual reaction to being asked to do something.
Having such an attitude towards your placement area will not endear them to you and you won’t create good relationships. Besides, getting involved with the daily running of your placement area is how you gain the basic and foundational skills that will help to form you into a competent nurse as your progress through your training.
There is a way you can carry out the daily routine while still achieving what you need to academically. More often than not you’ll find it’s the people doing these routine tasks that have the most contact with the patients or service users.
It is important to know what is expected of you. Resist the temptation to think that any job is beneath you and use your time wisely. Everyday should give you another opportunity to learn something.
In answer to the question in the title; am I just a pair of hands? No, you’re so much more.
