Feedback from student placements

A growing number of students from a range of professional backgrounds are now using Patient Opinion as a resource for learning. The latest are student nurses from Kingston University, who will be learning from the experiences of thousands of patients, carers and service users. They will also be feeding back some of their own stories whilst on placement at NHS Trusts and other healthcare providers.

Patient Opinion visited Kingston University to deliver a workshop on how to use the website to share stories, and also explained the importance of sharing good and bad experiences. Students will post stories of their work placements which will then be shared with the University, participating trusts and other stakeholders including Health Education England.

In the workshop the students wrote down some comments of previous experiences whilst on placement. Here are a few samples:

“I was on placement in an elderly mental health ward, mainly for people with dementia.  I thought that the ward was respectful to clients and appeared to have a genuine interest in their lives and what they had to say.  The ward had a warm and friendly feeling and patients appeared to feel safe and comfortable on the ward.”

“I found that there is still no integration of care between adult general services and the mental health services.  As a student I had a placement in an adult setting (general ward).  I was not taken seriously and they doubted my competence as I was studying mental health nursing.  During shift allocation I was not allocated any students whereas other students studying general nursing were.  This brought my confidence down and made me think that maybe it’s time we go back to the old days where students studied both fields….”

“Bad experience: First day of placement, being asked to do 15 minutes observation for nearly 4 hours (without break for the 2 hour gap).  Second day, I was asked to do observation again, but when I asked if it was going to be a repeat of the previous day, I was told if you don’t want to work here then we will struggle having you around.  As a student, I didn’t mind doing the observation -  it was the issue of prolonging them that bothered me.  On several days the ward was under staffed which led to most staff including me being burnt out.”

“I worked with a CMHT that was 100 per cent committed and passionate about advocating for the service user and being their voice.”

“I worked in a ward where the team were not inclusive which affected my confidence.”

“A mentor on one of my placements was so supportive and pushed me to do my best.  Their way of professionally conducting themselves is an inspiration.”

“On a community placement for adults for my most recent placement, they were fantastic.  The team were friendly hard working and always ready to help you.  They put a lot of work into patient care and as a result most had great relationships with their service users.”

“My last placement in a recovery mental health team.  The team had fantastic team work skills and worked well together.  My mentor a nurse in the team went above and beyond for service users and her students.  Excellent Mentorship.”

“Specialist OCD ward made excellent use of weekly staff support groups for the whole MDT team.  They would meet each week and discuss any concerns or support needed.  I felt this was extremely useful to express my own worries and concerns and a good way to gain staff feedback.”

“Unfortunately still a hierarchy in some of our placements where senior management do not work collaboratively with student nurses and see them at the bottom of the chain.  This is the rare manager, not all, but it still does exist.”

“On an Eating disorders ward felt that there was room for group clinical supervision to help staff reflect on experiences.  Need for clinical supervision post restraint and NG feeding.  My mentor was very good at helping me as a student.”

As you can see, we received some great insights on a range of topics that include both the quality of care and also the quality of placements as learning environments. 

Look out for more educational blogs and postings coming onto the site in the near future.