Staff Surprises
I have heard of extern scomplain that the managers or the staff do not know what they are doing, they are cranky, only allows them to file but I seldom hear from externs saying that they are appreciative of the time staff spends with them to teach them new skills.
Students should remember that these people are busy. They are good enough to accomodate these students even on their busy schedules.
I always remind my student sbefore they go to externship to always thank the people training them for their time. Be helpful in any small way they can help.
That is a wonderful reminder, and I hope it spurs the students to remember that others care enough to train them. Thanks for sharing.
I think this is a great point. Most of us that have worked in the field and have been preceptors know that it is very time consuming to have a student. Not many people have the patience and the willingness to do this. We need to remind our students to be appreciative and patient as well.
I always try and remind the students that they will not always have a positive rotation in clinicals. I tell the students to always walk away learning something. If they have a bad experience they need to remember that when they (students) have the same job and have students to be a more positve influence.
This served as a great reminder of something I tell my students every quarter.......the site is doing YOU the favor, you aren't doing them a favor by being there. It is important to thank them for the opportunity to be there and to participate in everything they can.
Michele, I love that you stress this outlook with your students. Keep up the good work!
This a very true for them to remember to be thankful and learn all that they can.
I agree to some extent. I think sites should be very truthful and honest about their workload and be able to say "NO" to accepting interns/externs. Although, I agree, that most sites are somewhat doing our students a favor by accepting them and showing them a real world experience of what they can expect as a part of the workforce, but accepting a student and not being able to properly teach them because the staff is "too busy" to teach does not serve our students the purpose of sending them to those facilities. I would rather have a facility deny us and say no to accepting new students than to accept every student and not be able to handle it because of lack of staffing or heavy workload.
Yes a clinical site is a privledge for the students. I encourage the students to stay with the staff member that is assigned to the room the student is in and make your self present by asking questions and seem very interested.
i also encourage my students to be grateful for their experiences. I often hear how The medical profession "eats their young', this os often true... I encourage my students to find a positive lesson out of the poor behavior
kristine, keep up the good work here.
Michele Deck
thanks michelle.... i really enjoy your ideas!
I have externs in my office constantly and I teach, so I see both sides of the experience. I dod not think anyone should take on externs if their office is too busy. Students will be your coworkers tomorrow so you need to teach as much as you can. They are more than file clerks. I always tell my externs to follow me first, and write down their questions as we go along. That way I can address their questons without interrupting patient flow. When the time is right, I can then address the questions and give the student my undivided attention.
Grace , I like your strategy of having the externs write down their questions for a time away from patients, so you can answer them thoughtfully and thoroughly without interrupting the work flow.
Michele Deck
I agree with Grace. We all have busy and/or bad days, but if for whatever reason you can't adequately precept, then don't. There's some great preceptors out there, but there's also those that should not be out there training newcomers, whether it be due to their bad attitude, incompetence, or just plain unwillingness to give their time. On the other hand, when someone is a great preceptor, it is such a good experience for the student, and they do notice and comment on it extensively.
Our clinical practice is always on site in our dental hygiene clinic, but we do experience some of the same challenges with instructor calibration and/or students perceptions of what an instructor has said.
Usually, if we ask more questions from the student as to their understanding of what the other instructor told them, we find that the differences are less substantive and more perceptual in nature. It just takes lots of communication and clarification between all of us.
Staff surprises often catch me off guard too as the instructor. It is very difficult for me to hear that the standard of care is not always being delivered especially by healtcare professionals that know better. So the exercise used for staff surprises is a great tool to weed out the acceptable and nonacceptable behaviors.
We are always getting the stories that we didn't learn to do it like that. My favorite line during discussion is that "There is two ways to bake a cake-from scratch or from a box". "You can still bake a great cake." The results can be the same even when two people take a different approach.
WENDY, I like your cake analogy and will use it.
Michele Deck
