Documented clinical experiences of primary care RN students: a preliminary report

A student-patient encounter form was developed for documenting patients' visits in the practicums of three primary care courses--obstetric-gynecology, pediatrics, and general adult patients--and from January 1973 to June 1974, 22 registered nurse students completed 1,027 student-patient encounter forms. Health problems were identified, using the Weed system and classified by the International Classification of Disease adapted for use in the United States. The study demonstrated that the encounter form facilitated the documentation of base-line data for student practicums. Preliminary analysis of the data revealed that: 1) health problems of patients classified as "without sickness" were important in the case loads of registered nurse students in obstetric-gynecologic and pediatric practicums; 2) health problems of patients classified as "symptoms of ill-defined conditions" were also important in all three student practicums, particularly with general adult patients: and 3) students encountered a cluster of health problems in dealing with patients in the three practicums. The study suggested a need to develop a classification scheme for health problems encountered in primary care nursing services.