The Second-Year Clinical Placement is aimed at consolidating and advancing professional competencies in medical, surgical, and community healthcare settings characterized by moderate levels of care complexity. Students progressively assume greater autonomy in nursing diagnostic reasoning, integrated management of the nursing care process, and ethical-relational practice.
Competencies acquired during the First-Year Clinical Placement are considered consolidated and mastered; students are expected to integrate them seamlessly into the planning and management of nursing care.
In accordance with the EFN Competency Areas (CA 1–6), students are expected to:
• Act responsibly in accordance with professional ethics, values, and regulations (CA1);
• Promote prevention, therapeutic education, and patient empowerment (CA2);
• Apply clinical decision-making processes with increasing autonomy and critical thinking (CA3);
• Adopt structured communication tools and actively collaborate within multidisciplinary teams (CA4);
• Demonstrate leadership by integrating the principles of Evidence-Based Health Care (EBHC) into clinical practice (CA5);
• Plan, implement, and evaluate the nursing care process in general and specialized medical-surgical and community healthcare settings (CA6.1–6.4).
Knowledge and Understanding
Students will:
• Deepen their understanding of the nursing care process;
• Understand nursing diagnostic reasoning, including nursing diagnoses, outcomes, and interventions;
• Acquire knowledge of applied clinical pharmacology principles and advanced medication dosage calculations;
• Understand the management of invasive medical devices;
• Know clinical monitoring tools and validated scales used to assess risk and the evolution of care complexity.
Applying Knowledge and Understanding
Students will be able to:
• Integrate data from initial and ongoing assessments, identify nursing diagnoses and expected outcomes, select appropriate nursing interventions, and evaluate care results;
• Apply fundamental ethical and professional principles in clinical practice;
• Safely manage medical devices, including invasive devices, and safely implement prescribed diagnostic and therapeutic interventions;
• Apply prevention protocols and continuous monitoring procedures;
• Document the nursing care process and participate in the transfer of clinical information within the healthcare team;
• Organize nursing care for groups of patients, establishing and justifying care priorities.
Making Judgements
Students will:
• Demonstrate critical thinking skills;
• Identify nursing care priorities and recognize early signs of clinical instability;
• Critically analyze adverse events and near misses;
• Explore clinical cases through the use of Evidence-Based Health Care (EBHC);
• Develop situational clinical leadership by actively collaborating within the multidisciplinary team.
Communication Skills
Students will be able to:
• Communicate effectively with patients and caregivers through the application of therapeutic helping relationships;
• Use appropriate scientific and professional terminology in written and oral documentation;
• Contribute actively to clinical briefings and debriefings within the healthcare team.
Learning Skills
Students will:
• Develop reflective practice based on clinical learning experiences and critically integrate received feedback;
• Develop awareness of their emerging professional identity.