Student Expectations
Active Learning
It is our expectation that as an undergraduate student, you identify your strengths and areas for improvement, set personal goals that address the areas for improvement, and actively seek learning opportunities to meet your goals. As active learners, it is important that you give critical thought to your learning needs and devise a plan to address them. As you get into clinical areas, you might want to discuss your thoughts with your clinical faculty and ask for feedback. We also expect that you actively prepare for every clinical day and set aside time at the end of each clinical day to identify the things you need to review, and then take time during the week to get that learning done.
Time Management
Nursing school is a full-time commitment. Once you have started the CORE (your final two years), we do not recommend that you work full-time. If you haven’t already, look at your obligations outside of school and identify ways that you can be successful over the course of the program. You may want to seek resources and formulate a plan now so that you can get the most out of this experience.
Communication with Faculty
Each clinical or lab course, you will be assigned a clinical faculty member who is responsible for the evaluation of your performance. It is essential that you keep your designated clinical faculty member informed of any change in your clinical site or schedule, as well as any unanticipated events that occur during the clinical experience, e.g. illness or injury related to experience.
Professionalism
Good communication skills, a positive attitude, and respectful and productive interactions are part of being a professional. Being a great health care provider does not mean you possess manual skills, but that you possess the heart of a nurse who is compassionate, caring, and willing to lead with humility. Your professors can help you network and develop connections within the profession, so the impact of your professional image is important to consider. We hold faculty to the same expectations.
Clinical time is also best spent seeking new learning opportunities and discovering your area of interest. Practice involves a variety of activities that include direct care and indirect care experiences. Direct care refers to care activities provided at the point of patient care. Indirect care refers to interventions that are provided on behalf of patients. What counts as clinical experiences in your coursework is tied directly to the clinical learning objectives for that particular setting and is part of meeting the overall program competencies based on the program standards. The standards provide an important framework for designing and assessing baccalaureate education programs for professional practice.
Strong moral values and character are the backbone to the nursing profession. It is imperative that health care professionals maintain collaborative relationships with patients, doctors, fellow health care providers, and other health care staff. If conflict arises, students must try to resolve the situation in a way that supports the situation in positive way. Many of you are natural leaders and we encourage you to discover the power of positive leadership as you move toward your future.
Professional Boundaries
Professional codes of conduct are the foundation for caring relationships. These relationships exist primarily during the student’s education within the timeframe of their enrollment in the nursing program. These relationships are developed between client-nurse, student- faculty, faculty-faculty, and student-student. The student –client relationship exists within the timeframe of the nursing course. The National Council of State Boards of Nursing has developed a document that provides the basis for understanding the boundaries for such relationships.