The Clinical Placement Grid Interpretation and Understanding Transparent

The Clinical Placement Grid Interpretation and Understanding

Transparent Placement Availability • Universal scheduling tool • Transparency of placement & utilization • Students represented on grid meet compliance standards

Purpose of the Grid • To provide a landscape visualization and inventory of all nursing student clinical placement for each acute setting and for the region • To create a standard scheduling tool among education programs and healthcare partners • To identify clinical placement opportunity • To visualize utilization of healthcare setting

Background • A single Grid is developed for each healthcare setting. • The Grid is a standard document utilized by 51 partners of education and healthcare in Washington State and northern Idaho. • All Grids are available online at cpnw. org. • The Clinical Coordinator acts as a single point-of-contact for the nursing program and healthcare setting to facilitate placement.

Sequence of Events 1. All placement requests for the upcoming academic year are submitted to the Clinical Coordinator. 2. The placement requests are inserted into the Grid by the Consortium Clinical Coordinator. 3. Nursing programs review and collaborate to avoid overlap and volume issues. 4. The Grid is submitted to the healthcare representative for approval process.

Sequence of Events 5. Nurse managers review the requests for their unit(s) and approve or decline the placement. 6. The information is sent back to the Consortium Clinical Coordinator. 7. A final approved Grid is developed and distributed to the nursing program and healthcare setting by May 31. 8. The approved Grid is uploaded to the CPNW web. 9. Any request for placement revision occurs through the Clinical Coordinator.

Interpretation 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 The Grid has seven main field areas across the horizontal header: 1. 2. 3. 4. Clinical Area (Unit) Nursing Program Type of Student Number of Students 5. Days of the Week 6. Shift 7. Monthly Calendar

Interpretation • The Grid is best read from left to right. • Clinical areas are separated by double lines. • Each nursing program has a permanently assigned color which acts as a visual identifier. • The numbers within parentheses are the actual start dates that students will be on the unit.

Interpretation All units are located on the Grid. Placement parameters established by the unit communicate expectations to nursing programs such as student volume, level, days, etc.

Interpretation Nursing programs are identified by their abbreviated letters as well as by their assigned color. Renton Technical College (RTC) is represented by orange. Tacoma Community College (TCC) by blue.

Interpretation Type of student describes the nursing program as well as the student level or term or quarter. This is helpful information for the nursing unit and also helps to track placement of students throughout the facility. ADN or BSN “prec” or “prac” refers to the senior practicum experience.

Interpretation The number of students represents the total numbers of students from the nursing program present on the unit during that time period.

Interpretation Row three interpretation on the 10 th floor Oncology Unit: Tacoma Technical College (TCC) has 2 ADN Q 4 students present on Monday and Tuesday, dayshift from November 27 th through December 5 th.

Interpretation There are three standard shifts but Grids can be formatted for both eight-hour and twelve-hour shifts. This Grid reflects a traditional eight-hour shift format.

Interpretation Clinical start and end dates are the dates between parentheses. Line one interpretation shows one Renton Technical College (RTC) ADN preceptor student present any day of the week on any shift between September 21 st and December 8 th.

For additional Information regarding Clinical Placements Northwest Mary Mc. Donald RN MN Consortium Clinical Coordinator mmcdonald@pierce. ctc. edu 253. 370. 0508 Colleen J Hewes DC MSN RN Consortium Clinical Coordinator colleenhewes@cpnw. org 206. 819. 0729