October 19, 2012 My clinical group was on their game in the busy Med/Surg. unit. The Safety Auditor (SA) arrived and made the student nurse (SN) assignments. Everyone was ready to take on a full three patient assignment. The SNs received report from the SJDC student nurses leaving the floor, read their patients charts, and made introductions to the primary nurses.The Med/Surg nurses were very happy to have SJDC SNs the entire shift for their high acuity patients. The SA and I quickly informed the SNs that they would only have two patients.
  
During the SA rounds, one SN was assigned to care for an inmate.  This mis-step was remedied with a soft reminder to the SN and SA that it is not appropriate to assign students to inmates. During clinical orientation, the SNs were made aware of two things that they could NOT do:
 1) may NOT care for inmates(SNs are vulnerable to this population and must be kept safe).
 2) may NOT do finger stick/glucometer without their primary nurse present.

The SNs assigned to the ICU/ED had a very different story. Low census in the ICU meant few opportunities for SN clinical experiences.The primary ICU nurse for one SN refused to have a SN. The ICU nurse stated that she was too busy to have a SN.  This nurse was reminded that she would be leaving at three o'clock, she then reconsidered having a SN. In the ED, the charge nurse was not thrilled about having SN and she told us so. As diplomatic as I could be, my request to leave the SNs in the ED was granted!
What a day! I am very proud of myself and my students. The time spent on the concept mapping and nursing care plans really paid off when it was time to document in the patients records. The students were able to use clinical reasoning skills based on information collected, formulated their plans for  care, and offered rationals for what they were doing and why! I learned that My students need to be protected and it is up to me to speak on their behalf... My2cents