Professional Capstone and Practicum Reflective Journal
Introduction
During the practicum, I worked in the inpatient rehabilitation center for post-surgical, cardiac, cancer, and stroke patients. I mostly focused on pressure ulcer prevention and evidence-based practice education. My mentor allocated me tasks and roles that equipped me with the essential skills to advance my career. Specifically, I was able to gain enormous knowledge on different healthcare aspects in ulcer prevention and patient education. This journal will reflect on the knowledge acquired and learned during my 10 weeks placement. Professional Capstone and Practicum Reflective Journal
New Approaches
The nursing field is constantly undergoing changes that require the invention of new approaches. The new approaches lead to better patient outcomes (Salmond & Echevarria, 2017). During my practicum, I learned the use of the latest evidence to inform my practice. I observed nurses using evidence to inform their practice. My mentor specifically emphasized that I should provide evidence-based practice education to the patients. As a result, I would research and use the latest evidence to educate my patients and implement pressure ulcer prevention interventions. In my future practice, I plan to continue using the latest research evidence to inform my practice and improve the quality of care and health outcomes for my patients.
Ethical Considerations in Healthcare
During the practicum, I came across various ethical scenarios. For example, there was a patient with diabetes but she did not want to undergo foot ulcer assessment. Assessment of foot ulcers for patients with diabetes is very vital yet the autonomy of patients must be respected. According to the organizational code of ethics, I informed the patient of the importance of the assessment but her decision would be respected. The patient finally agreed to be assessed out of her own will. In the organization, ethical issues were addressed by consulting the ethical experts in the organization and adhering to the professional ethical requirements and the organizational code of ethics. Nurses would also use the four ethical principles and ethical theories such as deontology, utilitarianism, virtues ethics, and ethics of care to address ethical dilemmas (Mandal et al., 2016). In my future practice, I plan to use ethical principles, ethical theories, as well as adhere to the organizational and professional code of ethics when handling ethical dilemmas.
Interprofessional Collaboration
Interprofessional collaboration in healthcare is important to facilitate efficient coordination of care (Busari et al., 2017). This was very relevant during the practicum. For instance, during pressure ulcer prevention activities, I was required to collaborate with different interprofessional such as podiatrists, physicians, pharmacists, nutritionists, and an endocrinologist. Moreover, I also collaborated with my peers, mentor, and other healthcare practitioners throughout the practicum. This significantly improved my collaboration skills. Nurses should collaborate with practitioners from other disciplines to address health issues as a team, improve care coordination, and improve care standards (Busari et al., 2017). I plan to utilize the collaboration skills gained during my practicum in my future practice by working as a team with professionals from other disciplines.
Health Disparities
Throughout the practicum, I came across patients from diverse cultures and backgrounds. Specifically, the patients I educated about pressure ulcer prevention came from different backgrounds and I realized as a nurse I had a critical role to play in ensuring equity for all patients (Islam, 2019). The nurse head and my mentor emphasized the importance of identifying health disparities facing the local population to implement interventions to address the disparities. The organization and nursing staff addressed the disparities by educating the locals to improve health literacy and encourage them to adopt healthy lifestyles and also the management subsidized costs for patients coming from low socioeconomic status. During my future practice, I plan to advocate for strategies the support better access to healthcare for minorities (Wasserman et al., 2019).
The Role of Technology in Improving Health Care Outcomes
Technology has been demonstrated to improve care delivery, care coordination, communication, and patient outcomes as well. In the organization I was attached, telehealth was used to monitor patients with chronic conditions. I, therefore, learned that telehealth is very useful in monitoring of patients while at home and remote provision of care (Alotaibi & Federico, 2017). However, some nurses would resist the use of technology but change champions were used to convince them to support the changes. During my future career, I will embrace different technologies aimed to improve care provision, monitor patients, and facilitate efficient care provision. Professional Capstone and Practicum Reflective Journal
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Health Policy
Nurses as patient advocates can influence the implementation of policies that support better health care (Benjamin, 2018). In my practicum, I witnessed nurses advocating for practices and policies that facilitated better patient care. The nurse practitioners in the organization would often present their proposals to legislators and state and local policy-makers. Similarly, I plan to act as the patient advocate and support the implementation of policies supporting improved healthcare for population health.
Population Health Concerns
Population health concerns are issues that significantly affect the health of a population. Diabetes is among the most significant population health concerns (Ariosto et al., 2018). The organizational leadership and the healthcare providers focused to address the major health concerns facing the local community. In my practicum, I focused on pressure ulcer prevention and patient education for patients with diabetes. This taught me the importance of addressing health concerns in the communities that I serve. However, prioritizing the health concern to address first may be a challenge because some health issues have similar impacts on populations. In my future practice, I will identify the most pressing health concern in the community and advocate for addressing such concerns through appropriate interventions (Salmond & Echevarria, 2017).
Leadership and Economic Models
Affective leadership and financial management are very vital to the success of healthcare organizations. In my practicum, I worked under the nurse manager who applied different leadership skills to lead. The nurse manager mostly used transformational leadership to inspire, motivate, and support the staff under her. It was clear when the nurse manager used the transformational leadership style, the working environment was better and we felt more supported. Transformational leadership has been demonstrated to support, inspire, and motivate followers, and also creates a better working environment (Sfantou et al., 2017). Similarly, in the future when assigned a leadership role I plan to use the transformational leadership style.
Health Care Delivery of Clinical Systems
A health-care delivery system is characterized by an organized and systematic response to population health issues (Huang et al., 2018). The care delivery system of the organization I worked in addressed health needs holistically. Health care not only addressed the physical needs but also the financial, emotional, spiritual, and cultural needs of the patients. I, therefore, plan to advocate for a holistic approach when addressing health care needs to patients and communities at large.
Conclusion
This reflective journal reflects on the knowledge I gained throughout my practicum and how this knowledge impacts my career progress. I learned and gained enormous knowledge on the use of the latest evidence in practice, interprofessional collaboration, technology use in healthcare, ethics during practice, among other aspects.
References
Alotaibi, Y. K., & Federico, F. (2017). The impact of health information technology on patient safety. Saudi medical journal, 38(12), 1173–1180. doi:10.15537/smj.2017.12.20631.
Ariosto D, Harper E, Wilson M, Hull S, Nahm E & Sylvia M. (2018). Population health: a nursing action plan, JAMIA Open. 1(1), 7–10.
Benjamin R. (2018). Health Policy Affects Health Outcomes: Community Determinants of Health. Progress in community health partnerships: research, education, and action, 12(1S), 1–2. doi:10.1353/cpr.2018.0012.
Busari J, Moll F & Duits A. (2017). Understanding the impact of interprofessional collaboration on the quality of care: a case report from a small-scale resource-limited health care environment. J Multidiscip Healthc, 9(10), 227–234.
Huang, W., Long, H., Li, J., Tao, S., Zheng, P., Tang, S., & Abdullah, A. S. (2018). Delivery of public health services by community health workers (CHWs) in primary health care settings in China: a systematic review (1996-2016). Global health research and policy, 3, 18. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41256-018-0072-0.
Islam M. M. (2019). Social Determinants of Health and Related Inequalities: Confusion and Implications. Frontiers in public health, 7, 11. doi:10.3389/fpubh.2019.00011.
Mandal, J., Ponnambath, D. K., & Parija, S. C. (2016). Utilitarian and deontological ethics in medicine. Tropical Parasitology, 6(1), 5–7. https://doi.org/10.4103/2229-5070.175024.
Sfantou, D. F., Laliotis, A., Patelarou, A. E., Sifaki-Pistolla, D., Matalliotakis, M., & Patelarou, E. (2017). Importance of Leadership Style towards Quality of Care Measures in Healthcare Settings: A Systematic Review. Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland), 5(4), 73. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare5040073.
Salmond, S. W., & Echevarria, M. (2017). Healthcare Transformation and Changing Roles for Nursing. Orthopedic nursing, 36(1), 12–25. https://doi.org/10.1097/NOR.0000000000000308
Wasserman J, Palmer R, Gomez M, Rick B, Said I & John A. (2019). Advancing Health Services Research to Eliminate Health Care Disparities. Am J Public Health, 109(1), S64–S6
Students are required to maintain weekly reflective narratives throughout the course to combine into one course-long reflective journal that integrates leadership and inquiry into current practice as it applies to the Professional Capstone and Practicum course.
In your journal, you will reflect on the personal knowledge and skills gained throughout this course. The journal should address a variable combination of the following, depending on your specific practice immersion clinical experiences:
- New practice approaches
- Intraprofessional collaboration
- Health care delivery and clinical systems
- Ethical considerations in health care
- Population health concerns
- The role of technology in improving health care outcomes
- Health policy
- Leadership and economic models
- Health disparities
Students will outline what they have discovered about their professional practice, personal strengths and weaknesses that surfaced, additional resources and abilities that could be introduced to a given situation to influence optimal outcomes, and finally, how the student met the competencies aligned to this course.
While APA style is not required for the body of this assignment, solid academic writing is expected, and in-text citations and references should be presented using APA documentation guidelines, which can be found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center.
This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.
You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. Please refer to the directions in the Student Success Center.
Professional Capstone and Practicum Reflective Journal