DEU Clinical Liaison Nurse Roles & Responsibilities

The Clinical Liaison Nurse (CLN) is a Registered Nurse (staff member) from the DEU whose role is to promote and co-ordinate student learning opportunities during their clinical placement. The CLN role can be assigned to one or more Registered Nurse(s) for each DEU, they will be responsible for specific tasks associated with the clinical placement of nursing students in conjunction with the Academic Liaison Nurse (ALN) and CNM/CM/NM.

Please see the information sheet below, which outlines the criteria for the CLN role, and the Clinical Liaison Nurse Agreement form which needs to be completed once a CLN has been approved by the CNM/CM/NM.

CLN information sheet

Clinical Liaison Nurse Agreement

The CLN acts as a liaison person

Between students
DEU staff, ALN, NE, CNS, MDT and CNM/CM/NM
With DEU staff regarding student's role, learning needs and progress within the DEU
With the ALN regarding student progress
Between education providers and service provider (CDHB) to assist students to make the link between theory and practice

The CLN organises student experiences in routine nursing care on a day to day basis by:

Providing orientation for nursing students on their first day. This maybe in conjunction with the ALN, NE and other CLN's
Allocating students to DEU staff, peers and /or patients/clients.
Arranging student rosters and liaising with the ALN.
Anticipating and organising extra experiences for student in relation to their patient'/clients' and in collaboration with the RN supervising the student, i.e endoscopy clinic, theatre and community agencies etc.
Working with students on a one-to-one basis as required and reviewing clinical practice diaries.

In addition the CLN will:

Update the ALN with student's progress as necessary. Work with the ALN to develop a student action plan where necessary.
Complete student clinical assessments in partnership with the ALN.
Encourage DEU staff (including MDT) to participate in student teaching.
Encourage students to be self-initiating, self-correcting and self-evaluating.
Be involved in collaborative research and quality activities as appropriate.
Participate in the evaluation of the overall effectiveness of the DEU practice area with respect to students learning outcomes.
Demonstrate a commitment to ongoing professional development eg PDRP, post graduate study.
Have an understanding of the programme curriculum and what level the students should be at.

Collaborative assessment process

This is an example of how the collaborative assessment takes place in a DEU:
Formative assessment 1.5 hrs per student

Prior to meeting, CLN seeks feedback from RN's and other relevant clinical staff to inform assessment meeting.
Student hands in self-assessment to CLN or ALN before day of assessment.
At the time of assessment the ALN and CLN spend the first 30 mins looking at student self assessment and discussing where they think the student is according to assessment form.
The student is called in and the ALN, CLN and student discuss student progress and set goals for rest of placement.
The assessment form is written up completed within the timeframe of 1.5 hours

A similar format would be followed for the Summative assessment to be completed within the timeframe of 1 hour.

The CLN role is allocated supernumerary time throughout the student placement

These hours are outlined below.

8 hours for preparation for the student placement.
8 hours for student orientation.
1 hour per week of the placement for CLNs to use to manage the placement or undertake improvements to the DEU resources. This is flexible as to how it is utilised over the placement, thus it can be allocated as an hour each week or allocated as 2 hours per fortnight or taken as one block of 5 or 6 hours per placement (depending on the placement length).
1.5 hours per student for completion of formative assessment.
1 hour per student for completion of summative assessment.

Each semester the DEU Nurse Educator will calculate the supernumerary hours for the CLN's and email this to them and their CNM/CM/NM.

Notes:

If a clinical practice area shares the CLN role between two registered nurses then these hours are shared according to the work of each individual. Thus, if two registered nurses undertake the preparation for the student placement, it is 4 hours per nurse. If Registered Nurse A undertakes 4 assessments and Registered Nurse B undertakes 2 assessments then:

Nurse A is allocated 6 hours for the formative and 4 hours for the summative assessments
Nurse B is allocated 3 hours for the formative and 2 hours for the summative assessments

Example: DEU with 6 students for 5 week placement:

8hrs - Preparation
8hrs - Student orientation
1.5hrs x 6 students = 9hrs Completion of formative assessment
1hr x 6 students = 6hrs Completion of summative assessment
1hr x 5 weeks = 5hrs Management of placement & improvement to DEU resources
Total = 37 hours

It is an expectation that all CLN's will complete the DEU CLN online training package within one month of being appointed to the role, please contact the DEU Nurse Educator for the link to the training package. This will be followed up with a 1 hour face to face visit with your DEU Nurse Educator. CLN's are required to attend a yearly DEU update workshop (booked via Healthlearn) and we also recommend completing the clinical learning and teaching package on Healthlearn.