Journal Entry: Practicum Reflection

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.
WEEK 1 ASSINMENT.
Self-assessment Clinical Skills
Self-assessment tools help to measure the grasping level of clinical skills. The tools enable one to develop their obtained skills, weaknesses, strengths, and way to deal with their weaknesses. This report aims to analyze my strengths and weaknesses with the help of the PMHNP Self-assessment Checklist. This report will also address my improvement opportunities and the measurable objectives and goals for my practicum experience.
Strengths
One of my notable strengths is that I can apply people-centered care in my practice. This skill has enabled me to satisfy and figure the various needs of a patient. I tend to continue maintaining this skill by treating people with respect and dignity, offering personalized, coordinated, and supportive care to patients.
My other strength is applying appropriate techniques to complete a comprehensive or precise physical examination of patients. According to Francis & O'Brien (2019), this skill helps acquire data on a patient's nursing diagnosis. To maintain this skill, I plan to practice it regularly while investigating patients in community health clinics and medical wards.
Finally, I have good verbal and written communication skills. I have learned to maintain a positive attitude when communicating with anyone, including patients and fellow team members. This skill has helped me built better relations with patients and co-workers (Peate, 2019). I plan to learn more about effective communication skills to maintain this skill.
Opportunities for Improvement
One of my weaknesses is that I may fail to include all the differential diagnoses even though I do an accurate patient assessment. To reduce this from happening, I will familiarize myself with various differential diagnoses and understand how they relate.
I also need to improve on how I plan my patient’s treatment. To do this, I have to acquire a comprehensive understanding of medical literature associated with pathology and the history of diseases. This way, I can be able to plan effectively for treatment. Besides, the nurse practice act, especially its legal compliance, has been complicated to understand. However, I plan to familiarize myself with it regularly and consulting with the necessary personnel to curb this challenge.
Measurable Goals and Objectives
I will keep my care instructions, patient details, and assessment tools safely or handover to the next nurse on the shift in case they need them. This will ensure patient information can be retrieved easily when needed, and the next nurse on shift can understand specific instructions to follow and patient details (Baker, 2019). This will also help me or other nursing staff understand the patient well while promoting person-centered care.
I will always be keen while interacting with the patient and noting down everything while still fresh in my mind. This will help in suggesting a proper treatment for the patient's diagnosis (Peate, 2019). Also, it will ensure I do not forget to write down important patient notes and details. Additionally, it will help in minimizing safety issues and promote better patient care (Baker, 2019).
By the time the year ends, I want to have attended at least three workshops focused on either my current area of specialization or in a field I do not know anything about. In a year, there are always over six workshops organized by the hospital management, and I believe I can achieve this goal. The hospital management always encourages all staff members to participate in these workshops.