Reflective Prompts to Guide Termination of the Psychiatric Clinical Student Nursing Experience

The average length of stay on psychiatric inpatient units has decreased in the past 40 years from 24.9 to 7.2 days. Inpatient psychiatric nurses are challenged to meet the standards and scope of practice despite the changing circumstances of their work environment. The amount of time student nurses spend with a given patient has been affected by changes in acute psychiatric inpatient care and decreased length of stay; however, opportunities exist for effective termination of the nurse-client relationship. Facilitation of students' awareness and understanding of the dynamics inherent in the termination process is an important teaching task for psychiatric nursing clinical instructors. In the current article, a clinically focused learning activity using structured prompts to guide and promote psychiatric nursing students' experiences with the process of termination is described and teaching strategies are discussed.