Assignment: Practicum – Journal Entry

As a future advanced practice nurse, it is important that you are able to connect your classroom experience to your Practicum Experience. By applying the concepts you study in the classroom to clinical settings, you enhance your professional competency. Each week you complete an Assignment such as Journal Entries or SOAP Notes that prompts you to reflect on your Practicum Experiences and relate them to the material presented in the classroom. This week you begin documenting your Practicum Experiences in your Practicum Journal.

To prepare for this course’s Practicum Experience, address the following in your Practicum Journal:

• Select and explain a nursing theory or feminist perspective to guide your clinical practice.
• Develop goals and objectives for the Practicum Experience in this course. When developing your goals and objectives, be sure to keep women’s health guidelines and best practices in mind.
• Create a timeline of practicum activities based on your practicum requirements.

In this Discussion you will identify three clinical practice problems in your current (or past) practice as a nurse that risk compromise to quality of care and patient safety. You will select one of these problems to clearly define the risk and ask a question using the PICO format. Asking the question and selecting the problem is the first step of the Impact Model that is discussed in the textbook. Evidence-based practice questions are asked and written in the PICO format and you will use this process as you develop an evidence-based practice project that will be completed in steps during the course.

Note Initial Post: A three-paragraph (at least 250–350 words) response. Be sure to use evidence from the readings and include in-text citations. Utilize essay-level writing practice and skills, including the use of transitional material and organizational frames. Avoid quotes; paraphrase to incorporate evidence into your own writing. A reference list is required. Use the most current evidence (usually ≤ 5-years-old.)

Template/example

Step 1                  Ask and Search

 ASK– identify evidence-based practice (EBP) question

Write in PICO format

P –  patient population

I  –  intervention/issue

C – comparison intervention

O – outcome(s)

For example, in patients with acute myocardial infarction, does ambulation within the first 24 hours as compared to those who remain on bed rest for the first 48 hours result in increased participation in cardiac rehabilitation following discharge from the hospital?