PRAC 6665 Week 11 Journal

Introduction

Welcome to the last week of your practicum! As you have proceeded through the practicum experience, you have been regularly challenged to reflect on your growth and development as you made progress on your goals. Additionally, your Preceptor has evaluated your skills and has provided feedback. As you end this practicum, consider what you have gained from the experiences in your practicum setting. 

Did you meet your goals and objectives? What were the challenges and how did you manage them? What were the successes and what lessons can you take from those experiences and apply to future experiences? Use your reflections to seek opportunities for growth in the areas you found challenging, while simultaneously celebrating your successes.

This week, you complete a reflective journal on your practicum experience. Additionally, you must log in to Meditrek and download and print out your Patient Log. This serves as a record to provide to healthcare organizations when requested.

Learning Objectives

Students will:

  • Assess clinical skills related to advanced psychiatric-mental health nursing practice
  • Assess achievement of goals and objectives for the practicum experience

Learning Resources

Required Readings Meditrek https://edu.meditrek.com/Default.html

Reminder: Retrieve Your Clinical Hour and Patient Logs

This week, your Preceptor must sign off on your clinical hour log in Meditrek. Contact your Preceptor if you do not see this approval.

Additionally, be sure to log in to Meditrek at some point during the week and print out your Patient Log for this quarter. You will need to keep this log and provide it to healthcare organizations when requested to secure privileges. It serves as a record of the patients you have seen.

Assignment: Journal Entry

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.

By Day 7 of Week 11

Submit your Journal.

Practicum In Review

Congratulations on completing PRAC 6665: PMHNP Care Across the Lifespan I Practicum! During the practicum, you honed your assessment, communication, documentation, diagnostic reasoning, and treatment skills within a clinical setting. You also assessed your clinical strengths and opportunities and worked toward improvement in identified areas. In doing so, you are better prepared for the clinical challenges of advanced practice nursing.