Going the Extra Mile

How one preceptor helped save the day for our Adult Gerontology students

by Chelsea Schmitz

The COVID-19 pandemic put many of our students at risk for losing their clinical placements. As hospitals went into overdrive dealing with the crisis, students were asked to stay away. Without the precepted hours needed, though, they wouldn’t be able to graduate.

Current preceptor and nurse practitioner at The Ohio State University Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute, Cassie Walker, APRN, CNP, (’13 MS) knew she had to do something. Walker has been a preceptor for the College of Nursing since 2015.

“I always had wonderful preceptors in my undergraduate and graduate programs,” she said. “I felt like my preceptors really helped me see the bigger picture and answered my questions. I wanted to help other students in that way.”

When the pandemic started, she was precepting a student who still needed to fulfill clinical hours in order to graduate. Due to hospital restrictions and the need to save supply of PPE, the students were not allowed to be in the hospital with direct patient interaction. “My student received information from fellow students that they could still work to receive their clinical hours via telemedicine,” Walker said. “Once I figured out how to do this, I began reaching out to my colleagues to share how others within The James could set this up for students.”

Concerned by the backlog of students who still needed clinical hours, Walker worked toward a new goal: to get as many students placed as possible.

“I was shocked, amazed and proud of the number of people who stepped up to help these students get their hours,” Walker said.

In the end and in huge part due to Walker’s advocacy, all of the students in the spring 2020 Adult Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner cohort received the hours they needed to graduate and sit for certification.

“I was amazed at Cassie’s genuine devotion to assisting my learning in every way possible,” Calli Fronk, a master’s student precepted by Walker, said. “When the coronavirus pandemic hit and the potential of not being able to complete clinical hours to graduate became a possibility, Cassie stepped in immediately to find telehealth preceptors for the students in my program. Cassie did this on her own time, simply because she truly cares about the students. Because of Cassie, I and many of my fellow students were able to successfully complete our clinical hours and graduate during a pandemic.”