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Clinical placements
Every clinical placement will have its highs and lows, but each one will teach you first-hand knowledge about the realities of nursing, as well as skills which cannot be found in a textbook. This section contains practical advice about picking the right placement, dealing with problems whilst there and stories from other student nurses on how their professional development grew in tandem with their knowledge and understanding of patient-centred care.
In this section:
- Placement adviceClinical placements allow student nurses to put theory into practice with real patients and actual clinical situations. It is one of the most interesting and exciting aspects of training to be a nurse. Every placement will challenge you, improve your communication skills, build your knowledge and foster your reflective practice.
- Community placementsAs part of your training, all nursing students have to complete a community placement. These vary from shadowing a health care visitor, providing palliative care at home or working with disabled children to nursing in a care home, working at a prison for young offenders or a day centre for drug addicts.
- Professional developmentProfessional development happens fast and furiously on placement, so student nurses need to use reflection to analyse and assimilate their experiences so that they form an informative part of their future practice. Here other nursing students explain how their professional development took place and share the knowledge they took away with them.
- Patient-centred carePatient-centred care in today's NHS means putting the patient and their experience foremost, through communication, discussion of treatment options, potential outcomes and possible psychological effects. It empowers the patient and allows them to make choices about their healthcare. Here student nurses share their experiences of patient-centred care and what it means in practice.
Courses & Careers
This section offers practical and professional advice at every stage of your nursing career.
The RCN Publishing Company is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Royal College of Nursing, the world's largest organisation for nurses. RCN Publishing produces one weekly, eight monthly and two quarterly nursing publications. Nursing Standard, the flagship journal, is the UK's biggest selling weekly for nursing. It is produced by RCN Publishing Company along with a suite of specialist nursing journals - Cancer Nursing Practice, Mental Health Practice, Learning Disability Practice, Nursing Children and Young People, Nursing Management, Emergency Nurse, Nursing Older People, Nurse Researcher and Primary Health Care. RCN Publishing Company also produce the RCN Bulletin, a major source of up-to-the-minute information for RCN members in all specialities, grades and working environments. With the latest nurse vacancies from trusts nationwide, it has become the most cost-effective nurse recruitment magazine available.