Helping students to begin hospital field placements: an active learning approach

Hospitals are high impact settings that tend to exacerbate the student anxieties which are normally associated with beginning field placement. Even though they are experiencing stress, incoming students are challenged to begin to learn in several different areas simultaneously. A carefully planned orientation can help students cope with the stress of beginning while absorbing needed new information. This paper describes an orientation strategy that utilized knowledge of how adults learn. Students were provided with written orientation objectives designed to enable guided independence in learning.