Hands-on experience for Berwick nursing students
Third-year nursing students have been getting hands-on experience in chronic illness management at Berwick Healthcare.
In conjunction with Berwick Healthcare, a student-led clinic has provided third-year nursing students enrolled in Chronic Illness Management with a unique clinical experience.
The aim of the clinic was to provide students with an innovative and challenging way of learning complex assessments while incorporating communication and interpersonal skills with real patients in a clinic environment.
The students interacted with patients from the local community performing a variety of assessments on patients ranging from four to more than 75 years old.
Third Year Co-Coordinator Ms Robyn Eames said the goal of the clinic was to improve future patient outcomes as students learn to target care where it is needed most.
“The feedback from the students was positive about being able to work with real patients in an actual primary health care clinic," Ms Eames said.
"They felt it had made an impact on their learning experience; putting the pieces together about chronic illness and assessment, recognising signs of problems and potential problems in the future which could be addressed.”
The clinic was conducted in a dedicated teaching space at Berwick Healthcare adjacent to the Berwick campus. Students assessed patients in pairs with three pairs being allocated each week to patients booked into the Practice Nurse clinic. The remainder of the students not performing assessments at the time observed the interactions and assessment.
The student-led clinic joins the simulation and community health labs and two other innovative teaching programs, FIRST2ACTweb™ and MASK- Ed-KRS, for trainee nurses at the Berwick campus to ensure they have a better understanding and practical knowledge of health care when they join the workforce.
The program recently received a Campus Seeding Grant to expand and further develop the student nurse-led clinic next year.