Abstract
Practical training provides student nurses with opportunities to have direct experience working with a variety of patients. Medical care is rapidly advancing and becoming increasingly sophisticated, and student nurses are expected to acquire practical skills enabling them to provide care that meets the diverse needs of patients. Undergoing practical training is an important process for them to combine knowledge and skills learned in classes and put them in practice. During such training, medical professionals at hosting hospitals, clinics, and welfare facilities supervise the student nurses, and they are expected to be appropriately trained and ideally to supervise the student nurses fulltime in order to achieve optimal outcomes of practical training. However, at our hospital, due to a shortage of trained supervisors, staff at various levels are responsible for the student nurses in rotation while fulfilling their usual duties. Thus, we prepared a communication notebook for supervisors of practical training as a tool to achieve the goals set for practical training. Three effects of introducing the communications book on the supervisors were observed: the supervisors were established as role model-like figures; cooperation was established among the supervisors; and the instruction provided was tailored to the students’ needs. These results indicate that using of a communication notebook for supervisors of practical training facilitates continuous supervision of student nurses throughout the practical training period that is tailored to their individual levels and thus serves as a useful tool.
