Faculty of Nursing & Midwifery
Rapid Teaching Moments
As a mentor, there may be many opportunities to facilitate the learning for a student. When you are with the
student, these rapid teaching moments can often create a new way of looking at things or can prompt the team to
come up with others, linked to the placement speciality. Here are just a few examples:
Abbreviations
Your student looks at the abbreviations on their handover sheet or in the patient notes and identifies what they
mean. They should be encouraged to seek help with the ones they do not know. Alternatively you could give
the student a short list of common abbreviations to identify.
Allergy to penicillin
Write out a list of common antibiotics and then ask your student nurse to identify if they can be given to
someone who has an allergy to penicillin. If the student is not sure then they can look it up in the BNF.
Bedside safety
Ask your student to go into your bay of allocated patients and to look at any bedside safety issues they can
identify. E.g. Suction not working, no O2 mask, bags on the floor.
Care planning
Ask your student to write a care plan- as rough copy- for a patient they are caring for- identify the patient needs
and the care to be planned to meet those needs. This can be done for all needs or just 2-3 dependent on the
experience and confidence of the student.
Environment safety
Ask your student to walk around the ward and identify any safety issues e.g. sitting scales without the brakes on,
boxes in front of a fire escape. Discuss risk assessment, patient safety and accountability.
Equipment for a procedure
When doing a procedure ask the student to go ahead of you and assemble all the equipment that you will need
e.g. passing an NG tube, wound dressing, catheter washout.
Fluid balance
Ask your student to assess the fluid status of a patient - having chosen a patient carefully. Students should get all
the information available- obs. chart, fluid chart, blood results, IVI prescription chart, drug chart - to calculate
fluid balance, but also look at other factors , for example, drugs that are renal toxic, electrolytes, skin turgor etc.
A more senior or more able student could do this for a small number of patients.
Follow the patient through a procedure
When a patient is going for a procedure e.g. going to theatre, colonoscopy- your student can accompany a patient
through the length of the journey from leaving the ward to procedure room to recovery and back to the ward.
You may like to have a list of questions or aims already prepared so that the student can focus on learning
Google
Ask your student to Google anything that they have not understood from their handover sheet or from discussion
with yourself e.g. diagnosis, procedure etc. Also you could give your student a set of questions to answer and ask
them to search the intranet or internet for the answers e.g. symptoms of hypoglycaemia, side-effects of a drug
that has just been given.
Handover 1 - one patient or more
Ask your student to handover a patient –e.g. at end of shift or on transfer to another area. Give the student time
to sit down and decide what they will say – they could write this down if they prefer. This could be shown to
you before they do the handover with your support if needed.
Handover 2- an aspect of care
Prior to shift handover ask the student nurse to handover one aspect of care for the patient-e.g. nutrition, fluid
balance. As confidence improves the student can handover more aspects of care or one aspect for more patients.
How has your condition affected your life?
Choosing a patient carefully, and with consent, ask your student to discuss their condition with a patient e.g.
COPD, diabetes. Prompt the student to ask about, for example: eating, social life, hobbies, getting dressed, going
to a restaurant etc.
Hub & Spoke
Together with your student identify other professionals or clinical areas with close links to the practice
placement that will help the student to get a more holistic view of clinical practice -e.g. diabetic CNS, pain team,
pre-assessment unit. Ask your student to find out the relevant bleep numbers or extension numbers and arrange
to spend some time there or with that member of the MDT. You will need to ensure that time is structuredpossibly by having a set of suggested questions for them to take with them.
Images
Have a series of photographs or images - relevant to your speciality, which you can discuss with your student.
For example, wounds (easily obtained from Google images), equipment etc.
Medications and past medical history
The student nurse looks at the medications that a patient is currently on along with their past medical history and
current complaint. Using this information and their knowledge of medications your student should identify why
each drug is being given. They should also check the dosage, frequency, route of administration etc.
National guidelines
Ask your student to look up a national guideline (SIGN, NICE, RCOG, etc.) relevant to your area. For example,
treatment following stroke or MI, or guidelines for the management of group B strep in pregnancy, or routine
postnatal care. Together with your student, identify whether your area is following the guideline at all stages
along the patient journey, including after discharge.
Online patient forums
Your student can look at patient discussions online to gain insight into the daily difficulties, challenges and
concerns of patients with, for example, ileostomy. Ask the student to reflect on whether the principle concerns
differ from what they thought they would be.
Out-of-date equipment
Rather than throw away equipment that is out of date, keep it for students to practice with and to discuss away
from the bedside.
Patient assessment using a template
Second and third progression point students – with a patient’s permission ask your student to do a holistic
systematic assessment of a patient, writing their findings down for you to check. If your student finds this too
difficult then ask them to address just one part of assessment e.g. respiratory. Encourage the student to involve
the patient in the assessment.
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Patient perspective of a procedure
Following careful selection of the patient and obtaining consent ask your student to discuss with them a
procedure which they have been to and to explore that procedure from the perspective of the patient e.g.
angiogram, X-ray.
Patient story telling
Choosing a patient carefully and, with their permission, your student sits and talks to them, asking the patient
about their journey, from first signs of illness to current admission. Emphasise that they should ask questions
about the patient’s perspective of their illness and treatment. Requires careful patient selection, and may not be
appropriate for all students at the start of their training.
Peer assisted learning
When more than one student is on the ward they can practice skills on each other e.g. manual blood pressure,
taking a temperature.
Peer-to-peer teaching
Ask your student to hand over a patient to another student. Then ask the second student to reflect on whether all
the information required to give care has been given.
Practice writing documentation
Ask your student to do a rough copy of a piece of documentation for a patient e.g. evaluation of care for the
shift, theatre checklist, section 2 for referral to social services. To then show this to their mentor and possibly fill
in the copy to go with the patient, into the notes etc.
Preparation for surgery
Ask your student to write a list of all the things that need to be checked before the patient goes to surgery or for
an invasive procedure. Then ask the student to explain why each item is checked. For a more junior student you
may want to go through the theatre checklist and explain why each item is checked and potential problems if not
done correctly.
Talking through a skill
While observing you as the mentor doing a skill e.g. wound dressing- the student tells you what should be done
next throughout the practice of that skill. You can also ask the student why each step in the procedure is
necessary.
Ward rounds/case meetings/clinical incident meeting
Support your student to gain greater understanding of MDT working– either as observer or for more senior
students as a participant – by arranging for your student to attend MDT meetings, case conferences or to
accompany the ward round visiting patients. The student should be accompanied by their mentor or other
qualified staff member for support. Then ask the student to reflect on the role of the nurse in the meeting or on
the ward round.
What if.....?
Give the student a situation to think about e.g. patient starts to fit, patient falls on the floor, appears drowsy after
IM morphine – ask your student to tell you what they think should be done in this situation. This could be done
as a group with other students and then discuss later when their mentors are more easily available.
Do you have any Rapid Teaching Moments of your own that you'd like to share? Please let us know at
excellentmentor@kcl.ac.uk
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