Week 11 Journal Entry-Practicum Experience-Nursing Paper Examples

 Revisit the goals and objectives from your Practicum Experience Plan. Explain the degree to which you achieved each during the practicum experience.

Critical reflection on my professional development during my nursing practicum experience is instrumental in developing and identifying my clinical strengths and opportunities for improvement while offering insight to handle future practicum. My goals for this practicum were to learn to identify signs and symptoms of anxiety, ADHD, and depression while devising appropriate interventions for the patients. I also aimed to learn about comprehensive subjective assessment of psychiatry patients featuring family and subjective data within 11 weeks (Practicum Experience).

I have achieved my goals as I can identify my patients’ problems and come up with accurate diagnoses based on the presentations and symptoms with minimal supervision from my preceptors. I can also confidently use the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) to conduct comprehensive psychiatry assessments. I can collect patient subjective data to inform my diagnosis and treatment options, including medicine prescriptions and follow-up programs.

Reflect on the three (3) most challenging patients you encountered during the practicum experience. What was most challenging about each?

I encountered different challenges while taking care of various patients. The first patient was conservative and overly opposed to modern medical interventions. The patient believed that God is responsible for illnesses and diseases that result from sinning against his will. Therefore, repentance is the only solution for his health problems(Practicum Experience).

The second patient did not comply with treatment regimens and believed that her family members should have left her to die as she had no hope of recovery. The third patient was overconfident and believed she did not need any care from the nurses or other healthcare professionals. The patient even attempted to walk out of bed despite the nurses’ warning not to do so. In this case, offering care for the patient is time-consuming since the patient feels they are right.

What did you learn from this experience?

Patients are vulnerable individuals in the community who require optimum care to improve their quality of life. Patients’ health safety depends on my knowledge, skills, and competency as a health care provider. Therefore, I have to improve my skills and competency to improve the quality of care and promote patient safety. I also learned that establishing interpersonal relationships with my patients allowed me to know them well and identify their needs to devise appropriate intervention strategies (Arnold & Boggs, 2019) (Practicum Experience).

What resources did you have available?

I had enough resources while carrying out my nursing practicum. The knowledge learned in class and weekly readings were instrumental in achieving my goals. My preceptors also offered the required guidance in patient care to improve healthcare outcomes. I also used the university library and online evidence-based literature to improve my knowledge, judgments, and clinical reasoning (Practicum Experience). 

What evidence-based practice did you use for the patients?

I used evidence-based practice to improve my clinical practice, research knowledge, and critical thinking. I researched evidence-based information about different conditions I encountered during my practicum and adopted best intervention practices for my patients, depending on the presentation. I also featured the DSM-5 as an instrumental evidence-based tool with descriptions, symptoms, and criteria for mental health diagnosis (Rice et al., 2022).

What new skills are you learning?

I am learning interpersonal communication with my patients to promote information exchange, ideas, and feelings with my patients verbally or non-verbally. By so doing, I am gaining active listening and observational skills that allow me to comprehensively identify and understand my patients’ problems and address them appropriately. Reading the patients’ body language has improved my assessment and diagnosis(Practicum Experience).

What would you do differently?

Although I can come up with an accurate diagnosis for my patients, I often fail to include all the possible differential diagnoses. For this reason, I will familiarise myself with various differential diagnoses and how they relate to solving my problem. I will also research and learn about the pathology and history of different mental health disorders (Practicum Experience).

How are you managing patient flow and volume? 

Patients’ appointments take longer than expected, not to mention the high flows and volumes. I remain focused during patients’ assessments and make it as interesting as possible to improve their focus and engagement in the health examination. I also keenly follow appointment schedules to ensure I attend to patients booked for an appointment before arriving at the facility to manage patient flow and volume. However, I attend to patients with emergencies regardless of their appointments.