Description
Critical reflection of your growth and development during your practicum experience in a clinical setting has the benefit of helping you to identify opportunities for improvement in your clinical skills, while also recognizing your strengths and successes.
Use this Journal to reflect on your clinical strengths and opportunities for improvement, the progress you made, and what insights you will carry forward into your next practicum.
To Prepare
- Refer to the “Population-Focused Nurse Practitioner Competencies” found in the Week 1 Learning Resources, and consider the quality measures or indicators advanced nursing practice nurses must possess in your specialty of interest.
- Refer to your Clinical Skills Self-Assessment Form you submitted in Week 1, and consider your strengths and opportunities for improvement.
- Refer to your Patient Log in Meditrek, and consider the patient activities you have experienced in your practicum experience and reflect on your observations and experiences.
Journal Entry (450–500 words)
Learning From Experiences
- Revisit the goals and objectives from your Practicum Experience Plan. Explain the degree to which you achieved each during the practicum experience.
- Reflect on the three (3) most challenging patients you encountered during the practicum experience. What was most challenging about each?
- What did you learn from this experience?
- What resources were available?
- What evidence-based practice did you use for the patients?
- What would you do differently?
- How are you managing patient flow and volume?
- How can you apply your growing skillset to be a social change agent within your community?
Communicating and Feedback
- Reflect on how you might improve your skills and knowledge, and communicate those efforts to your Preceptor.
- Answer the questions: How am I doing? What is missing?
- Reflect on the formal and informal feedback you received from your Preceptor.
Objective 1: To do mental health status assessments on some clients by the end of the clinical
rotation.
Planned Activities: To attain this goal, I intend to participate in several initiatives that would guide me, including performing mental status assessment under the supervision of my preceptor on at least 30 patients. The support from my preceptor will be crucial to achieving this goal, and therefore I will be constantly open for guidance to improve the productive transfer of skills and knowledge. Another mechanism will be to identify potential behavior and mental disorders using mental status assessment. Last but not least, I will participate in interpreting the results from the mental status assessment.
Mode of Assessment: Will be based on expected outcomes of evidence-based research on particular mental disorders and appropriate use of screening tools. (Note: Verification will be documented in Meditrek)
PRAC Course Outcome(s) Addressed:
- Enhance professional skills
- Improve diagnostic reasoning skills and psychiatric evaluation skills
Objective 2: To properly recognize clinical signs and symptoms of the related mental disorder for
the client I engage with during this period
Planned Activities: This is one goal that I want to achieve mostly independently under the supervision of my preceptor, despite asking for guidance from my preceptor or my colleagues. I aim to use the patient’s concerns, physical evaluation, and the lab to develop a psychiatric diagnosis for patient signs and symptoms. Also, I will implement improved assessment skills in establishing and prioritizing psychiatric differential diagnoses. I will make use of DSM V and nursing journal.
Mode of Assessment: The DSM V manual will be utilized (Note: Verification will be documented in Meditrek)
PRAC Course Outcome(s) Addressed:
- Extensive psychiatric assessment skills, diagnostic reasoning, and professionalism due to engaging with the patients.
- Develop and differential diagnosis for patients across lifespan
- Utilize DSM V in patient care
Objective 3: To perform family or group therapy sessions and developing a treatment plan for the patients at the end of the sessions, with the help of my preceptor
Planned Activities: Under the supervision of my preceptor. I will lead sessions and initiate conversations that act as catalysts to improve and strengthen current relationships between loved ones and family members. One of the techniques I will utilize to make this goal successful is narrative therapy. This therapy is rare and distinct since it motivates the individual to be their person and utilize their skill set to address and reduce the tiny challenges in daily life. The narrative therapy’s idea is that in life, individuals develop individual narratives that aid them in recognizing who they are and have the appropriate tools to navigate their lives. This therapy aims to clarify, establish, and support the narrator/patient in life and guide their journeys
Mode of Assessment: (Note: Verification will be documented in Meditrek)
PRAC Course Outcome(s) Addressed:
- Psychotherapy treatment planning and extensive psychiatric assessment skills.
- Establishing professional plans in enhanced nursing practice