Growth and Development During the Practicum
Winter 2022(11/28/2022-02/12/2023)-PT27.202330.27
Week 11: Assignment
Start Assignment
- Due Feb 12, 2023 by 10:59pm
- Points 100
- Submitting a text entry box or a file upload
- Attempts 0
- Allowed Attempts 2
JOURNAL ENTRY
Critical reflection on your growth and development during your practicum experience in a clinical setting helps you identify opportunities for improvement in your clinical skills, while also recognizing your strengths and successes.(Growth and Development During the Practicum Essay for Nursing Students)
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.(Growth and Development During the Practicum Essay for Nursing Students)
RESOURCES
Be sure to review the Learning Resources before completing this activity. Click the weekly resources link to access the resources.
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.(Growth and Development During the Practicum Essay for Nursing Students)
- 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.
In 450–500 words, address the following:
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.(Growth and Development During the Practicum Essay for Nursing Students)
- Reflect on the three 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? (Growth and Development During the Practicum Essay for Nursing Students)
- What evidence-based practice did you use for the patients?
- What would you do differently?
- How are you managing patient flow and volume?
Communicating and Feedback
- Reflect on how you might improve your skills and knowledge and how to communicate those efforts to your Preceptor.
- Answer the questions: How am I doing? What is missing? (Growth and Development During the Practicum Essay for Nursing Students)
- Reflect on the formal and informal feedback you received from your Preceptor.
BY DAY 7
Submit your Journal.
SUBMISSION INFORMATION
Before submitting your final assignment, you can check your draft for authenticity. To check your draft, access the Turnitin Drafts from the Start Here area. (Growth and Development During the Practicum Essay for Nursing Students)
- To submit your completed assignment, save your Assignment as WK11Assgn+last name+first initial.
- Then, click on Start Assignment near the top of the page.
- Next, click on Upload File and select Submit Assignment for review.
Rubric
PRAC_6645_Week11_Assignment_Rubric
PRAC_6645_Week11_Assignment_Rubric
CriteriaRatingsPts
This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeAssimilation and Synthesis: Content Reflection
50 to >44.0 pts
Excellent
Reflection demonstrates a high level of critical thinking in applying and integrating key course concepts and theories from readings, lectures, and/or experiences. Insightful and relevant connections are made through contextual explanations and examples.(Growth and Development During the Practicum Essay for Nursing Students)
44 to >39.0 pts
Good
Reflection demonstrates moderate level of critical thinking in applying and integrating key course concepts and theories from readings, lectures, and/or experiences. Connections are made through explanations and/or examples.
39 to >34.0 pts
Fair
Reflection demonstrates minimal critical thinking in applying and integrating key course concepts and theories from readings, lectures, and/or experiences. Minimal connections made through explanations and/or examples.(Growth and Development During the Practicum Essay for Nursing Students)
34 to >0 pts
Poor
Reflection lacks critical thinking. Superficial connections are made with key course concepts and resources, and/or assignments.(Growth and Development During the Practicum Essay for Nursing Students)
50 pts
This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeAssimilation and Synthesis: Personal Growth
30 to >26.0 pts
Excellent
Expresses solid evidence of reflection on own work. Demonstrates substantial personal growth and awareness of deeper meaning through inferences, well developed insights, and significant depth in awareness and challenges. Synthesizes current experience into future implications.(Growth and Development During the Practicum Essay for Nursing Students)
26 to >23.0 pts
Good
Expresses moderate evidence of reflection on own work. Demonstrates satisfactory personal growth and awareness through some inferences, insights, and challenges. There is mention of the future implications of student’s current experience.(Growth and Development During the Practicum Essay for Nursing Students)
23 to >20.0 pts
Fair
Expresses minimal evidence of reflection on own work. Demonstrates less than adequate personal growth and awareness through limited or simplistic inferences made, insights, and/or challenges that are not well developed. Minimal thought of future implications of student’s current experience.(Growth and Development During the Practicum Essay for Nursing Students)
20 to >0 pts
Poor
Expresses inadequate evidence of reflection on own work. Personal growth and awareness are not evident and/or demonstrate an impersonal experience. Lacks personal insights, challenges, inferences, and/or future implications are overlooked.(Growth and Development During the Practicum Essay for Nursing Students)
30 pts
This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeWritten Expression and Formatting
15 to >13.0 pts
Excellent
Well written and clearly organized using standard English, characterized by elements of a strong writing style and basically free from grammar, punctuation, usage, and spelling errors.(Growth and Development During the Practicum Essay for Nursing Students)
13 to >11.0 pts
Good
Above average writing style and logically organized using standard English with minor errors in grammar, punctuation, usage, and spelling.(Growth and Development During the Practicum Essay for Nursing Students)
11 to >10.0 pts
Fair
Average writing style that is sometimes unclear and/or with some errors in grammar, punctuation, usage, and spelling.
10 to >0 pts
Poor
Poor writing style lacking in standard English, clarity, language used, and/or frequent errors in grammar, punctuation, usage, and spelling. Needs work.(Growth and Development During the Practicum Essay for Nursing Students)
15 pts
This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeAPA
5 to >4.0 pts
Excellent
Contains no APA errors.
4 to >3.5 pts
Good
Contains one to two (1–2) APA errors.
3.5 to >2.0 pts
Fair
Contains three to five (3–5) APA errors.
2 to >0 pts
Poor
Contains more than five (>5) APA errors.
5 pts
Total Points: 100
Growth and Development During the Practicum Essay for Nursing Students
I believe that everything we do makes a difference, and through growth, we can make a difference in our professional and personal lives. With this mantra, I set three goals to accomplish during the practicum. To this end, I can confidently say that I have achieved so much and am more competent in the mental health areas I set out to improve. My first goal was to achieve independence in selecting and implementing mental health screening tools and interpreting outcomes. During the practicum, I was involved in various patient cases requiring mental health screening tools and interpreting results to guide treatment interventions. Such involvement played a crucial role in helping me realize this goal.(Growth and Development During the Practicum Essay for Nursing Students)
The second goal was to achieve independence in evaluating, documenting, and reflecting on my practicum learning goals and objectives. While this goal might have seen as non-clinical, I wasted to enhance my reflection ability, which is crucial in achieving professional growth. During the practicum, I interacted with various patients and engaged in different clinical situations, and through reflection, I was able to learn from these experiences and implement the knowledge gained in consequent cases. Lastly, I set to enhance my competency in identifying the ethical and legal dilemmas in psychiatric practice and relevant solutions. While various ethical and legal dilemmas are unique, my understanding of underlying principles has been great, and I can confidently figure out potential dilemmas for different mental health scenarios and identify ways to mitigate them.(Growth and Development During the Practicum Essay for Nursing Students)
In mental health, every clinical scenario is unique and challenging, yet the clinical components have primarily been established in the literature, and with experience, a PMHNP student can mitigate most of these challenging situations. The first challenging patient I encountered was a teenager from a dysfunctional family. The teenager was diagnosed with bipolar disorder with psychotic features. She did not want her parents to be involved in her treatment at only 11 years of age. The second challenging patient was an Iranian teenager diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. The client immigrated to the United States recently and has limited language proficiency, and her perception of mental health affected her culture. Lastly, I encountered an aggressive and violent patient with a history of substance abuse, leading to psychosis. The client had to be restrained and isolated, considering the risks he posed to himself and others.(Growth and Development During the Practicum Essay for Nursing Students)
I learned that a positive alliance with the parents of a pediatric client is crucial in exploring the family relationship and establishing a collaborative approach to care (Brown, 2020). I have also learned that limited language proficiency is associated with the underutilization of mental health services and leads to adverse mental health due to the severity of symptoms and secondary disorders (Miteva et al., 2022). Lastly, I learned that aggression and violence among mental health patients are common occurrences, and PMHNPs should be knowledgeable and competent in managing such patients to de-escalate such situations for better health outcomes (Adeniyi & Puzi, 2021).(Growth and Development During the Practicum Essay for Nursing Students)
Various resources were available during the practicum. For instance, there were clinical guidelines for mental health diagnosis, such as the DSM-5 and Practioner’s Guide to Ethical Decision-Making. My preceptor was more variable during the practicum considering the guidance I got on various clinical situations. Moreover, the registered PMHNPs and other staff were supportive and guided throughout the practicum.
The evidence-based practices I used for the patients included cognitive behavioral therapy, motivational interviewing, and interpersonal psychotherapy. These therapy modalities were crucial in reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety, which were common among the mental health patients I was involved with throughout my practicum. Significantly, the modalities were effective in changing thought patterns for thoughts with suicide ideation and promoting coping strategies for various prognostic factors.(Growth and Development During the Practicum Essay for Nursing Students)
Given another practicum, I would search for a practicum site and preceptor early enough to ensure that I am adequately prepared for the practicum. Through the practicum, I helped manage the patient flow and volume through effective communication with the healthcare teams. An increase in communication was crucial in fast-tracking the admissions and discharge of patients. I might improve my skills and knowledge through practice and secondary research since many studies have been done on various evidence-based practices. To enhance my communication with the preceptor, I would let them know my interests, areas I need to learn more about, and how I can use my experience to enhance my competence.(Growth and Development During the Practicum Essay for Nursing Students)
References
Adeniyi, O. V., & Puzi, N. (2021). Management approach of patients with violent and aggressive behavior in a district hospital setting in South Africa. South African Family Practice, 63(1). https://doi.org/10.4102%2Fsafp.v63i1.5393
Brown, J. (2020). Engaging with parents in child and adolescent mental health services. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, 41(2), 145-160. https://doi.org/10.1002/anzf.1409
Miteva, D., Georgiadis, F., McBroom, L., Noboa, V., Quednow, B. B., Seifritz, E., … & Egger, S. T. (2022). Impact of language proficiency on mental health service use, treatment, and outcomes:” Lost in Translation.” Comprehensive Psychiatry, 114, 152299. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comppsych.2022.152299
Write From Scratch