What is placement?
Placements are experiential learning opportunities complimenting knowledge gained in theory courses and activities in The Hub. As a student, you will have many different placement opportunities that take place within a range of health care settings.
At the 1000, 2000 and 3000 clinical course levels, placements typically take place in the Peterborough and the surrounding area (including but not limited to Durham, Northumberland and City of Kawartha Lakes). You are able to provide your preference in locations and sometimes agencies offered, however; no guarantees can be made.
You will be required to make your own arrangements to and from clinical. While our best efforts are made to help accommodate students wishing to carpool to ease coordinating travel arrangements, keep in mind we cannot guarantee you will receive the same clinical placement or schedule with any one student. There are a great deal of factors that play into the complex process of arranging placements for each individual student and thus preferences are not always able to be accommodated.
At the 4000 clinical course level, you will meet with the Placement Coordinator to discuss options surrounding locations and placement setting. This may be an opportunity for you to be closer to home or perhaps even experience a new environment such as rural and/or remote locations. You may have opportunity to experience a new placement setting or work within a new agency that you may not have experienced in your first 3 years of the program. The Placement Coordinator will meet with you and your peers early in 3rd year to discuss this process further and begin planning.
Year One
NURS 1020H: Clinical Practice in a Residential Setting
NURS 1020H is a practice course including activities in the TFSON: Trent Simulation Hub (introduction to foundational nursing skills and assessment) and group practice within a resident-centered long-term care home. Often this placement is a 1 day a week placement within a long-term care home and/or a retirement community. Additionally, you will have weekly sessions in The Hub for laboratories and simulations.
Year Two
NURS 2020H: Community Based Nursing Practice:
NURS 2020H is a practice course involving an independent placement in a community setting (public health, clinics, agencies, schools). You will explore a specific topic of interest related to health promotion or population health. Supported by Hub activities relevant to practice in community including interviewing skills, immunization, and assessment (developmental, mental health, sexual). You will work with a community agency and attend one seminar a week with your clinical faculty instructor working to develop a project for the agency. Some student's past projects have included:
- Health promotion through patient education at Youth Emergency Shelter
- Sun protection and dehydration in Honduras
NURS 2021H: Family Focused Practice:
NURS 2021H is a group practice in a setting focused on families dealing with health transitions. Settings may include mental health, public health, or maternal/ child. Supported by Hub activities relevant to family-focused practice, including breastfeeding support, sexual health counselling, and assessment (cultural, prenatal, postnatal, and neonatal). Often, you will spend one shift per week with the placement agency in either a maternal/child setting such as the postpartum or mother baby unit in the hospital or in an inpatient mental health unit.
Year Three
NURS 3020H: Clinical Practice Focused on Acute Care:
NURS 3020H is a group practice in medical or surgical inpatient setting focused on the adult with acute illness. Supported by Hub activities relevant to acute care practice, including medication administration, sterile procedures, IV starts, IV pumps, and assessment (abdominal, glycemic status, neurological, pre-operative, post-operative, respiratory). You will commonly have two shifts per week with one session per week in the The Hub. Students are commonly placed in settings such as cardiology, general surgery, etc.
NURS 3021H: Clinical Practice Focused on Chronic Disease Management:
NURS 3021H is a group practice in a hospital setting focused on chronic disease or palliative treatment. Practice settings: complex continuing care medicine, rehabilitation, palliative care, high acuity long-term care. Hub activities include medication administration, VAC treatments, feeding pumps, patient-controlled pumps, and assessment of consciousness, orientation, and pain. You will often have two shifts per week (compressed students will more in a compressed semester) with one session (compressed students will have two sessions per week) in The Hub.
Year Four
Independent Nursing Practice A, B, or C
Independent nursing practice consolidates nursing practice competencies, integrating knowledge and skills. Using a theoretical approach that is relevant to the practice setting, you assume increasing responsibility for patient care assignments in a fully preceptored model. You will be independently placed with an RN (preceptor) at an agency and complete approximately 300 hours of clinical practice time. You will have the opportunity to work with the placement coordinator to identify areas and locations of interest. Specific placements are never a guarantee as placement availability is always dependent of resources, availability and fit.