Current Students

Memo 25: Guidelines for Emergencies in Clinical Settings for Instructors of BSN Students

Instructor responsibilities prior to the start of the quarter

  1. Investigate and understand the clinical site’s policies and procedures related to on-site incidents, illness and/or injury, including what to do in inclement weather, instructor illness, student injury, etc.
  2. Familiarize yourself with Student and Academic Services Memo No. 22: Student Health Policy. It includes information on Immunizations and Testing, as well as Blood-Borne Pathogens Policy & Other Potential Exposures to Infected Body Fluids.
  3. Devise a plan of action for an emergent situation, outlining what your students should do in an emergency. BEFORE the first day of the quarter, give copies to your students and send a copy to Patrick Tufford in Student and Academic Services by the tenth day of the quarter. The copy will be kept on file with our affiliation agreement with the site.
  4. Discuss your plan with students in your clinical group as well as with Student and Academic Services.

In the event of a student emergency

  1. The instructor’s primary obligation at the clinical site is the supervision of the group of students. If a student becomes ill or injured, your role is to direct the student to treatment as necessary, ensuring that supervision of the other students is ongoing. You must follow the policy and procedures of the agency. This may include: sending the student to the ER of the institution, sending the student to the employee health clinic, calling a cab so that a student can get to a care provider of choice, calling a code, or calling 911.
  2. If the instructor leaves the agency, all students in the section must leave the agency, as they must be supervised at all times. Students should be instructed to report off, refrain from giving any patient care, and leave immediately. If there is a UW faculty member on-site who assumes responsibility to supervise your group of students, you may assign students to report to that faculty member in your absence.
  3. Once the immediate needs of the situation have been met, the instructor must complete the UW Nursing Student Clinical Incident/Injury form, send a copy to Student and Academic Services, Box 357260, and send the original to Environmental Health & Safety, Hall Health Center, Box 354400, Seattle, WA, 98195. The agency may also request you to fill out their incident report.
  4. Inform Student and Academic Services ((206) 543-8736) of the incident and the actions you took.

Updated August 2011