NRS-493 Professional Capstone and Practicum Reflective Journal – Topic 2

Students are required to submit weekly journal entries throughout the course. These reflective narratives help students identify important learning events that happen throughout the course and the practicum. In each week’s entry, students should reflect on the personal knowledge and skills gained.

Write a reflection journal (250-300 words) to outline what has been discovered about your professional practice, personal strengths and weaknesses, and additional resources that could be introduced in a given situation to influence optimal outcomes. Each week there will be a specific focus to use in your reflection. Integrate leadership and inquiry into the current practice. Please make sure to address all areas in your writing.

Topic Focus: Interprofessional Collaboration

While APA style is not required for the body of this assignment, solid academic writing is expected.

This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.

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port articles is located in Class Resources if you need assistance.

Professional Capstone and Practicum Reflective Journal

Week 2: Interprofessional Collaboration

This week we focused on interprofessional collaboration. It characterizes the coordination of health care providers from different departments across the hospital to work collaboratively in the delivery of health care. In the interprofessional collaboration approach, different clinicians from different departments, skills, specialties, and disciplines team up to provide comprehensive and quality health care to patients, their families, and society (Karam et al., 2018). Today, the health care system is complicated and patient healthcare needs are extremely diverse. This practicum experience demonstrated to me the need of involving an interprofessional team to address complicated and diverse patient needs. Interprofessional collaboration is instrumental in ensuring safe, efficient, and quality health care provision. Interprofessional collaboration is also proved valuable in addressing the rampant challenge of medication errors (Karam et al., 2018). Medication errors usually occur due to poor communication or breakdown of communication among providers. However, interprofessional collaboration addresses such flaws in communication leading to reduced medical mistakes and improved safety of patients.

The current project seeks to manage the mental health and psychological conditions of elderly patients or seniors living in a managed long-term care setting. The specific interventions include the adoption of physical exercise and mindfulness mediation. If these interventions are approached from diverse perspectives by diverse clinicians, there is a high likelihood of positive and outstanding health outcomes among the targeted population (Labrague et al., 2022).  The positive outcomes are achieved through the integration of diverse knowledge, resources, talents, and skills to address the mental health issues in seniors.  Addressing mental health conditions needs the input of various care providers from various specialties. Therefore, I intend to partner with a diverse team of health care providers in this project such as social workers, fitness coaches, counselors, dieticians, physicians, and nurse educators to ensure better outcomes for the target population.

References

Karam, M., Brault, I., Van Durme, T., & Macq, J. (2018). Comparing interprofessional and inter-organizational collaboration in healthcare: a systematic review of the qualitative research. International journal of nursing studies, 79, 70-83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2017.11.002

Labrague, L. J., Al Sabei, S., Al Rawajfah, O., AbuAlRub, R., & Burney, I. (2022). Interprofessional collaboration as a mediator in the relationship between nurse work environment, patient safety outcomes, and job satisfaction among nurses. Journal of Nursing Management, 30(1), 268-278. https://doi.org/10.1111/jonm.13491

As a student in Master of Science in nursing program, I have learned that there is always room for growth and development in my professional practice. Through the studies, I have gained knowledge on the new practice approaches that could positively impact patient treatment outcomes. The above approaches involves incorporating leadership and inquiry into my current practice, application of evidence-based practices, as well as seeking out further resources (Moore et al., 2020).

Regarding my personal attributes, I think that my capacity for multidisciplinary teamwork and my effective communication abilities have served me well in my work. I am aware, though, that I can still do better when it comes to problem-solving and critical thinking. I want to look for chances for continuous education and engage in reflective practices that push me to think creatively in order to overcome this deficit (Slightam et al., 2020).

Promoting the best patient outcomes requires integrating leadership and investigation into my work (Stadick, 2020). I can promote change and progress as a nurse leader by searching out evidence-based practices and actively learning new things. I can influence favorable outcomes for my patients and the healthcare system as a whole by putting these principles to use and incorporating the findings into my everyday work.

In conclusion, my journey as a Master of Science in nursing student has taught me the importance of seeking out new and innovative approaches to improve my professional practice. I recognize that there is always room for growth and improvement, and I am committed to utilizing my strengths and seeking out additional resources to drive optimal patient outcomes. Through leadership and inquiry, I am confident that I can make a positive impact in my practice and the lives of my patients.

References

Moore, S., Roche, J., Bell, L., & Neenan, E. E. (2020). Supporting facilitators of maker activities through reflective practice. Journal of Museum Education, 45(1), 99-107. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10598650.2019.1710688

Slightam, C., Gregory, A. J., Hu, J., Jacobs, J., Gurmessa, T., Kimerling, R., … & Zulman, D. M. (2020). Patient perceptions of video visits using veterans affairs telehealth tablets: survey study. Journal of medical Internet research, 22(4), e15682. https://www.jmir.org/2020/4/e15682/

Stadick, J. L. (2020). Understanding health care professionals’ attitudes towards working in teams and interprofessional collaborative competencies: A mixed methods analysis. Journal of Interprofessional Education & Practice, 21, 100370. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2405452620300501

 

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Reflective Journal

Clinical experiences are important for promoting competency and skill development among nursing students. Nursing students utilize them to understand the unique needs that will influence care outcomes for diverse populations. Engaging in reflective practice enables nursing students to identify their needs, strengths, and opportunities for their continued professional development. Therefore, this paper is a reflection of my clinical experiences.

Discoveries about Professional Practice

I have made several discoveries about my nursing practice. Firstly, I continue to discover the crucial role played by nurses in optimizing the care outcomes for the populations that they serve. Nurses spend most of their time with patients than any other healthcare professionals. This provides them the opportunity to develop patient-centered interventions that enhance patient outcomes and experiences with care. I also continue to appreciate the role of nurses in ensuring the use of best practices in the care process. Nurses are pivotal in translating evidence-based practices into their practice to promote safety, quality, and efficiency (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2022). As advocates, nurses ensure the adoption of care interventions that safeguard the patients’ rights in the care process.

The practicum experience has also expanded my understanding of the importance of interprofessional collaboration. Nurses and other healthcare providers in the practicum setting collaborate in providing patient care. The collaboration is evident in different aspects of patient care such as assessment, planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation. Interprofessional collaboration has improved communication among healthcare providers as well as patient outcomes. I have also appreciated the role of culture in healthcare based on my clinical experiences. Patients and healthcare providers have diverse cultural values, beliefs, and practices that influence their care. Healthcare providers should be competent to offer culturally appropriate care to their populations. They should also advocate the adoption of policies that ensure cultural responsiveness in the organization. The delivery of culturally appropriate care motivates patients to be actively involved in addressing their health needs.

Personal Strengths and Weaknesses

I have discovered my strengths from the practicum experience. Firstly, I am an effective team member. I can easily work with other healthcare providers in providing the required patient care. I can also influence team activities through my input on how to optimize outcomes. I am also an effective communicator. I can express my ideas freely and respect others’ opinions. I am also an effective listener. I listen more than I speak, which helps me to learn more about the profession and people. I also discovered that I am an effective health educator. I have been educating patients about the effective management of their health problems. The education has been effective in increasing their awareness levels and promoting the adoption of healthy lifestyles and behaviors.

I have also discovered some weaknesses based on my clinical experiences. Firstly, I have not developed the required competencies in translating evidence into practice. I have participated in some activities involving the use of evidence-based practices in the care process. However, I feel inadequately prepared to lead the process. I have also learned that I tend to aim to do many things at the same time. This focus has been detrimental to me since I find myself overwhelmed at the end of a shift. As a result, I need to learn to prioritize things that I should do and start with the most important tasks. Prioritization will help me to save time on my assigned tasks and link outcomes with the implemented care interventions.

Additional Resources and Abilities

I believe that some interventions and opportunities should be introduced in the practicum site to influence optimal outcomes. Firstly, nurses should be given opportunities to participate in policy initiatives in the organization. The adopted changes or interventions should ensure adequate stakeholder participation. Nurses’ input on any changes adopted in the organization would ensure optimum outcomes in strategy execution. The second opportunity that should be considered is training nurses on the translation of evidence-based practices in their roles. Nurses might be competent in using best practices in the care process. However, they might have inadequate knowledge and skills in determining the credibility of evidence (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2022). The organization should provide training opportunities and mentorship to bridge this gap.

How I Met the Competencies

I met the competencies that align with the course. Firstly, I improved my teamwork and interprofessional collaboration skills by being part of care teams involved in case management in the organization. I participated in team activities such as patient assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation of care. I also used different technologies such as electronic health records and barcode system for medication administration. I also researched the effectiveness of these technologies in ensuring safety, quality, and efficiency outcomes in the care process. I also immersed myself in a learning activity that increased my understanding of the influence of culture on healthcare. I learned about the cultural practices that influence the population’s uptake of different services. I also learned the different ways in which nurses can promote culturally appropriate care in their roles. As a result, I feel prepared to advocate the delivery of culturally sensitive care and initiation of programs to achieve the objective in my future practice.

Conclusion

Overall, the practicum experience has been important for my personal and professional growth and development. I have learned several things about my professional practice. I have also discovered my strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for self-growth and development. I engaged in activities that met the competencies aligned with the course.

References

Melnyk, B. M., & Fineout-Overholt, E. (2022). Evidence-Based Practice in Nursing & Healthcare: A Guide to Best Practice. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.