Shaping the role of the clinical placement coordinator in an Irish A&E

Illuminating the essential elements of the role of the clinical placement co-ordinator: a phenomenological inquiry

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

The research aims to illuminate the essential elements of the role of the clinical placement co-ordinator.

BACKGROUND

Clinical placement co-ordinators were introduced to Irish health-care settings to support the clinical learning of nursing students after the ending of the apprenticeship model of nurse training and in the context of reforms culminating in the introduction of the BSc (Nursing) degree as the sole route of entry to practice in 2002.

DESIGN

A phenomenological design was used in order to explicate the necessary and sufficient elements of the role from clinical placement co-ordinators' accounts of their experiences of and in the post.

METHODS

In-depth, unstructured interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of five clinical placement co-ordinators. The interview process was guided by Crotty's framework for phenomenological data collection and analysed using Moustakas' modification of Van Kaam's method of data analysis.

RESULTS

Analysis and interpretation of the rich, narrative descriptions elaborated for each of the five participants revealed three essential elements pervading each account: being a dedicated presence for nursing students; facilitating the establishment, maintenance and development of the clinical teaching partnership between staff nurses and students; and monitoring the clinical learning environment to ensure safe practice. Each element emerged as necessary and sufficient from the accounts of each respondent, thus capturing the essence of the clinical placement co-ordinator role.

CONCLUSIONS

The exclusive focus on students' clinical learning needs is the essential element of clinical placement co-ordinators' role, requiring them to marshal human and other resources to optimize the clinical learning environment.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE

Optimizing students' clinical learning is a joint endeavour but benefits from the availability in clinical settings of a dedicated support person for students and staff.

New roles to support practice learning - can they facilitate expansion of placement capacity?

The National Health Service (NHS) Plan [Department of Health, 2000. The NHS Plan: A Plan for Investment, a Plan for Reform, The Stationery Office, London] set out an ambitious programme of growth for the number of students undertaking health professional education programmes. To meet this demand there is a growing and widely acknowledged need to increase the number of clinical placements needed by these students. This paper outlines the findings from a regional project that aimed to map the current pattern and availability of clinical placements for healthcare students by the collection of quantitative placement data (such as location, specialty, and number of mentors) as well as in-depth interviews with Clinical Placement Managers (CPMs). This article will focus on the findings from interviews with CPMs and their views and experiences of what role they can play in increasing placement capacity. The study revealed that the introduction of this role had facilitated the development and expansion of placement capacity, as the CPMs filled a gap in the form of up-to-date local knowledge about the clinical areas. The CPMs provided a much needed 'bridge' between the Higher Education Institution (HEI), the student and the clinical area. Recommendations are made in relation to future introduction of similar roles that aim to support student learning in practice. Furthermore, useful insights for ongoing policy implementation and development are highlighted.

Who am I now? The experience of being a post-registration children's student nurse in the first clinical placement

Role transition from staff nurse to post-registration student is not a well researched area of nursing. Two previous Irish studies have been reported of the experiences of post-registration midwifery students [McCrea, H., Thompson, K., Carswell, L., Whittington, D., 1994. Student midwives' learning experience on the wards. Journal of Clinical Nursing 3, 97-102; Begley, C., 1997. Midwives in the making: a longitudinal study of the experiences of student midwives during their two-year training in Ireland. Unpublished PhD Thesis, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Trinity College, Dublin.] but there is limited research into post-registration children's student nurses experiences. A broadly phenomenological approach was employed to interpret what it means to be a post-registration children's student nurse during the first clinical placement. Data was collected from a purposive sample of six students, using unstructured tape recorded interviews. Thematic content analysis was utilised to produce an interpretation of nurses' experience within the first clinical placement. The findings reflect the participants' role confusion when changing from being a staff nurse in one discipline of nursing to being a post-registration student in another. They find previous experience is not recognised and that students originating from different disciplines in nursing have different experiences within the first placement. Coping mechanisms are discussed along with preparation for and supports available in the clinical area.