Helping expand nurse practitioner students' clinical skills repertoire: learning minor procedures

This course is immensely popular with students. Many express a sense of accomplishment in knowing that they have performed a specific procedure at least once before facing the requirement in the clinical setting. Students who complete the course have a firm foundation in minor procedures and are knowledgeable about indications, contraindications, and methods to perform the procedure before facing that first patient in the clinical setting. They have also accumulated a set of procedures, patient discharge instructions, and a bibliography that can be reviewed before performing a procedure for the first time in the clinical setting. Combining clinical hands-on skills with the experience of writing a step-by-step procedure reinforces learning and is a valuable skill that can be used in clinical practice after graduation. Although many of the students will only apply a portion of the skills they learn in this course, they express a significant boost in self-confidence, a decrease in anxiety level, a sense of accomplishment in their skills, and a definite edge in securing a nurse practitioner position in a competitive healthcare marketplace.