Meaningful Event
The purpose of my paper is to reflect upon the student-preceptor relationship and how it shapes the views and interests of the novice nurse within the nursing profession. Thinking back, clinical opportunities that were meaningful to me have been when I built a positive and professional relationship with my preceptors. These well developed relationships have directly correlated with how well my overall clinical experience has gone and they’ve shaped the type of nurse that I would like to become. The reason that I’ve chosen to speak on this topic is the result of a particular nurse on the Cardiovascular Surgery Unit (4B) during my placement at the Toronto General Hospital (TGH). As I entered TGH on Sunday May 26th, I was aware that my designated preceptor would not be facilitating my learning on this particular shift. This was the result of her assignment as the charge nurse on the unit. As the charge nurse, her presence was continuously required at the nursing station as she could not be at the bedside. My preceptor had then indicated to me that I would be working with a more senior nurse on the unit. When I met this nurse: she greeted me with a smile, introduced her name and credentials, and told me a little bit about her professional background. The first topic of discussion that I had with her was her familiarity with the Scholar Practitioner Program (S.P.P); she mentioned briefly hearing about it. As a result of this I gave her a debriefing of the S.P.P, told her how the students learnt, mentioned my learning objectives, and gave her a little description of my own educational background. What struck me by surprise was how she received this new program. Unlike some of the preceptors that I’ve heard about from my co-learners, she was positive and willing to work with me to build a nursing foundation. This made me feel even more willing to be on the unit and to embrace my learning. Furthermore, she had given me a
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