Critical reflection of your growth and development during your practicum experience in a clinical setting has the benefit of helping you to 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 “Advanced Nursing Practice Competencies and Guidelines” 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. (SEE BELOW)
- Refer to your Patient Log in Meditrek, and consider the patient activities you have experienced in your practicum experience. Reflect on your observations and experiences.
In 450–500 words, address the following: (PLEASE address each bullet point)
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 did you have available?
- What evidence-based practice did you use for the patients?
- What new skills are you learning?
- 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?
- Reflect on the formal and informal feedback you received from your Preceptor.
Week 1: Competencies of Advanced Nursing Practice
Practical Experience
Program Transcript
Imagine you have a dinner reservation for a popular new restaurant. A new head chef
has just joined the team on the day of your reservation. But during culinary school, that
chef only read recipes out of books and watched videos of other chefs preparing meals.
The chef has extensive knowledge but no practical experience. Your dinner at the new
restaurant may not go so well, as it is the chef’s first time cooking professionally!
To prevent this situation, many fields have internships, apprenticeships, or practicums
that give students hands-on experiences in real work settings—before their “debut
dinner.” It is important for chefs, and it is even more important for nurses. Now that you
are about to begin your practicum, you can consider what you want to get out of the
experience.
This quarter, you will be working on site and assuming a similar role to what you could
hold after graduation. The practicum will be valuable because it provides you with
hands-on experience under the mentorship of a professional, your preceptor. Setting
goals will help you enter your practicum with a purpose. Do you want to improve specific
skills? Learn how to lead? Overcome challenges in a new setting? Discover ways to
connect with patients? Picture yourself in your practicum mastering an essential
procedure or honing a skill and use that visualization to create a goal.
Ultimately, your practicum will take you one step closer to your debut dinner—your first
day as an advanced practice nurse.
