Empowering Nursing Students: Fourteen Golden Rules for Clinical Day

Abstract

Few nursing school experiences are as intimidating as starting a clinical rotation. By providing adequate scaffolding, clinical instructors can help empower nursing students as they begin to provide care in a variety of clinical settings. This article presents the 14 golden rules for clinical day, a unique form of scaffolding based on my own experience as a nursing clinical instructor. The right scaffolding can help students to overcome the sense of otherness they often experience at clinical sites and to blossom into competent, confident nurses who put their patients first.