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, you have been evaluated by and gained feedback from your Preceptor. 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 the achievement of goals and objectives for the practicum experience
Assess clinical skills related to advanced psychiatric-mental health nursing practice
Learning Resources
Required Readings (click to expand/reduce)

American Psychiatric Nurses Association. (2013). Population-focused nurse practitioner competencies. https://www.apna.org/files/Councils/Population-Focused-NP-Competencies-2013.pdf

Note: Review the Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Competencies.

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

Photo Credit: Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

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.

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” in the Learning Resources, and consider the quality measures or indicators advanced practice nurses must possess in your specialty.
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; 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.
Reflect on the 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 how to communicate those efforts to your Preceptor.
Answer these questions: How am I doing? What is missing?
Reflect on the formal and informal feedback you received from your Preceptor.
By Day 7
Submit your Journal.

Submission and Grading Information
To submit your completed Assignment for review and grading, do the following:

Please save your Assignment using the naming convention “WK11Assgn+last name+first initial.(extension)” as the name.
Click the Week 11 Assignment Rubric to review the Grading Criteria for the Assignment.
Click the Week 11 Assignment link. You will also be able to “View Rubric” for grading criteria from this area.
Next, from the Attach File area, click on the Browse My Computer button. Find the document you saved as “WK11Assgn+last name+first initial.(extension)” and click Open.
If applicable: From the Plagiarism Tools area, click the checkbox for I agree to submit my paper(s) to the Global Reference Database.
Click on the Submit button to complete your submission.