PRAC 6665 Week 2 Practicum Experience Plan

Introduction

When setting sharp, clearly defined goals and objectives, you focus on what you wish to accomplish and how and when you will get there. Based on your assessment of your strengths and opportunities related to psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner (PMHNP) clinical skills, you can develop goals and objectives for your clinical practice that can guide your activities. What are some steps you can take on the way to a larger goal? 

How might you gain confidence in a clinical skill or seek out more opportunities to practice? What external activities might boost your professionalism or enhance your skill set? As you settle in at your practicum site, keep these questions in mind. This week, you continue engaging with patients at your practicum site, recording your time and experiences in your Clinical Hour and Patient Logs. 

You will also develop a Practicum Experience Plan (PEP) made up of goals and objectives designed to formally identify specific categories of clinical skills you wish to gain during your practicum experience. 

Learning Objectives

Students will:

  • Describe clinical hours and patient encounters
  • Develop a Practicum Experience Plan
  • Create a timeline of practicum activities based on your practicum requirements

Learning Resources

Note: Use this link to log into Meditrek to report your clinical hours and patient encounters.

  • Pumariega, A. J., Rothe, E., Mian, A., Carlisle, L., Toppelberg, C., Harris, T., Gogineni, R. R., Webb, S., Smith, J., & American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Committee on Quality Issues. (2013). Practice parameter for cultural competence in child and adolescent psychiatric practice. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 52(10), 1101–1115. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2013.06.019

Reminder: Introductory Communication

This week, you must coordinate an introductory email with your Clinical Faculty and Preceptor. The purpose of this communication is for orientation and onboarding, goals discussion, and questions.

By Day 7 of Week 2

Complete your orientation email. Attach your clinical schedule calendar developed in Week 1 in your email. Include a summary of your goals and objectives for this practicum experience.

Assignment 1: Clinical Hour and Patient Logs

Clinical Hour Log

For this course, all practicum activity hours are logged within the Meditrek system. Hours completed must be logged in Meditrek within 48 hours of completion in order to be counted.

You may only log hours with Preceptors that are approved in Meditrek. Students with catalog years before Spring 2018 must complete a minimum of 576 hours of supervised clinical experience (144 hours in each practicum course). Students with catalog years beginning Spring 2018 must complete a minimum of 640 hours of supervised clinical experience (160 hours in each practicum course).

Each log entry must be linked with an individual practicum Learning Objective or a graduate Program Objective. You should track your hours in Meditrek as they are completed.

Your clinical hour log must include the following:

  • Dates
  • Course
  • Clinical Faculty
  • Preceptor
  • Total Time (i.e., for the day)
  • Notes/Comments (including the objective to which the log entry is aligned)

Patient Log

Throughout this course, you will also keep a log of patient encounters using Meditrek. You must record at least 80 encounters with patients by the end of this practicum (40 children/adolescents and 40 adult/older adults).

The patient log must include the following:

  • Date
  • Course
  • Clinical Faculty
  • Preceptor
  • Patient Number
  • Client Information
  • Visit Information
  • Practice Management
  • Diagnosis
  • Treatment Plan and Notes: You must include a brief summary/synopsis of the patient visit. This does not need to be a SOAP note, however the note needs to be sufficient to remember your patient encounter.

By Day 7 of Week 2

Record your clinical hours and patient encounters in Meditrek.

Assignment 2: Practicum Experience Plan (PEP)

As you establish your goals and objectives for this course, you are committing to an organized plan that will frame your practicum experience in a clinical setting, including planned activities, assessment, and achievement of defined outcomes. In particular, your plan must address the categories of clinical reasoning, quality in your clinical specialty, and interpersonal collaborative practice.

For this Assignment, you will consider the areas you aim to focus on to gain practical experience as an advanced practice nurse. Then, you will develop a Practicum Experience Plan (PEP) containing the objectives you will fulfill in order to achieve your aims. In this practicum experience, when developing your goals and objectives, be sure to keep PMHNP clinical skills in mind.

To Prepare

  • Review your Clinical Skills Self-Assessment Form you submitted last week, and think about areas for which you would like to gain application-level experience and/or continued growth as an advanced practice nurse. How can your experiences in the practicum help you achieve these aims? There may be overlap between your skills goals and your PEP goals.
  • Review the information related to developing objectives provided in this week’s Learning Resources. Your practicum learning objectives that you want to achieve during your practicum experience must be:
  • Specific
  • Measurable
  • Attainable
  • Results-focused
  • Time-bound
  • Reflective of the higher-order domains of Bloom’s taxonomy (i.e., application level and above)
  • Discuss your professional aims and your proposed practicum objectives with your Preceptor to ascertain if the necessary resources are available at your practicum site.
  • Select one nursing theory and one counseling theory to best guide your clinical practice. Explain why you selected these theories. Support your approach with evidence-based literature.
  • Create a timeline of practicum activities that demonstrates how you plan to meet these goals and objectives based on your practicum requirements.

The Assignment

Record the required information in each area of the Practicum Experience Plan template, including three to four (3–4) measurable practicum Learning Objectives you will use to facilitate your learning during the practicum experience.

By Day 7 of Week 2

Submit your Experience Plan for assessment and Faculty approval.

  • When your Instructor has approved your plan, forward the signed PEP to your Preceptor, and retain a copy for your records