Assignment: Practicum – Week 1 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 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. 

In preparation for this course’s practicum experience, address the following in your Practicum Journal:

· Select one nursing theory and one counseling theory to best guide your practice in psychotherapy.

Explain why you selected these theories. Support your approach with evidence-based literature.

· Develop at least three goals and at least three objectives for the practicum experience in this course. 

· Create a timeline of practicum activities based on your practicum requirements.

Resources:

http://www.nursing-theory.org/theories-and-models/psychiatric-and-mental-health-nursing.php

Write a 10-15 page paper. You must include a minimum of 6 scholarly sources in your citations and references. Follow proper APA format and style and include a cover page, reference page, and any applicable tables or appendices.

The following components should be addressed in your paper:

·         Start with a statement of the problem and objective for the selected healthcare issues impacting the healthcare delivery system and professional nursing practice, which articulates the main objectives that the paper desires to achieve.

·         How will findings from research articles analysis contribute to advancing the practice of nursing? (Identify no fewer than six relevant research articles)

·         Include an analysis of a need for education within an agency and identify recommended action.

·         Describe the significance and relevance of the problem. What is the appropriate communication level for the target audience’s educational experience in order to improve communication with staff, administration, or clients in their practice area? And why did you select?

Gladys is an LPN working second shift at a hospital about 1 mile from her home. She is a recent widow and mother of two teenage boys. She is 20 pounds overweight and has high blood pressure. She works long hours to support her family, but still has trouble making ends meet. She has a poor diet and doesn’t exercise. Gladys says she doesn’t exercise because she is too busy. She likes to cook for her sons and makes large meals of pancakes, bacon, and fried eggs for breakfast most days. Dinners usually consist of quick prepackaged meals because they are inexpensive and fast. Gladys has been experiencing significant stress that has started to impact her life and work. Gladys came in today at the request of both her supervisor and her physician.

Your supervisor asks that you submit your evaluation of the case within a professional report. In this report, describe the challenges you see for Gladys. In addition, develop an innovative solution plan for Gladys addressing each of the identified challenges including a timeline for implementation.

Assignment Directions

The report should be on topic, original, and have clear foundations in evidence-based approaches. Assignments should be at least 3 pages double spaced, not including title page and references.

Performance management is, ideally, an ongoing quality-assurance-based process to provide an organization, its employees, regulatory agencies, accreditors, and other stakeholders with a structured means to support and accomplish mutually identified strategic goals and objectives.

Assume the role of a newly-hired risk management officer for a hypothetical new allied health organization in your chosen career field. You and your team will need to develop the organization’s policies.

The first item you will create will be a performance management plan. Using the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) 

(https://hrsa.gov/quality/toolbox/methodology/performancemanagement/index.html)or other qualified framework, craft a proposal (1,250-1,500 words) for a performance management plan for your new organization that includes the following:

1. Organizational Goals. Provide a statement of your organization’s goals in terms of workplace safety, risk management, or quality improvement. Pick one area, and develop five goals for that one area.
2. Outline of Organizational Objectives. Outline and provide a brief evaluation of specific objectives that support the organizational goals you previously identified.
3. Summary of Relevant Performance Measures. Summarize the steps and measures your new organization will adopt to measure performance. Consider: (a) How well measures will align with your stated goals? (b) How do these measures demonstrate a relationship to positive health outcomes? (c) Are the measures you select able to be controlled by your organization (i.e., can your organization effect change in this area?)? (d) Which measures meet criteria related to reliability and validity, and which are standardized?
4. Performance Baseline. Determine a performance baseline for the measures you have selected. This will enable your organization to conduct comparisons of desired goals versus actual results as time moves on.
5. Performance Evaluation. Select one of three commonly accepted methods to measure provider quality and summarize the features and why it applies best to your organization. Refer to the assigned reading, “The Measurement of Health Care Performance: A Primer From the Council of Medical Specialty Societies,” by the Council of Medical Specialty Societies (CPSS) (http://www.cmss.org/uploadedFiles/CMSS_Quality_Primer.pdf).
6. Definition of Success. Define what success means to the organization. Now that you have chosen measures to assess organizational performance, you need to identify what success means to your organization; otherwise, you are chasing a moving target. Be explicit in the level of performance you see as acceptable. This will change as an organization grows, but you need to start somewhere in order to get anywhere.

You are required to use and cite a minimum of three qualified resources from the readings, qualified website

In our last week will review  Educational Advancement:  The DNP (Doctor of Nursing Practice)/PhD . This topic will guide you and encourage you to take a next step to advance on your professional life. 

Topics to review: Joel chapter 4

Suggested readings and Video:  Why should you get a Doctorate in nursing?  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8oR_hVSLyg

Assignment:

1-Search in scholarly sources the similarities and difference between PhD and DNP.  Post three similarities and three differences found on your research.  Do not forget to include your reference.