Professional Capstone And Practicum Reflective

Professional Capstone And Practicum Reflective Journal

Students maintained and submitted weekly reflective narratives throughout the course to explore the personal knowledge and skills gained throughout this course. This assignment combines those entries into one course-long reflective journal that integrates leadership and inquiry into current practice as it applies to the Professional Capstone and Practicum course.

This final submission should also outline what students have discovered about their professional practice, personal strengths and weaknesses that surfaced during the process, 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.

The final journal should address a variable combination of the following, while incorporating your specific clinical practice experiences:

1. New practice approaches
2. Interprofessional collaboration
3. Health care delivery and clinical systems
4. Ethical considerations in health care
5. Practices of culturally sensitive care
6. Ensuring the integrity of human dignity in the care of all patients
7. Population health concerns
8. The role of technology in improving health care outcomes
9. Health policy
10. Leadership and economic models
11. Health disparities

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. Refer to the LopesWrite Technical Support articles for assistance.

Benchmark Information

This benchmark assignment assesses the following programmatic competencies:

RN to BSN

2.3:     Understand and value the processes of critical thinking, ethical reasoning, and decision making.

4.1:     Utilize patient care technology and information management systems.

4.3:     Promote interprofessional collaborative communication with health care teams to provide safe and effective care.

5.3:     Provide culturally sensitive care.

5.4:     Preserve the integrity and human dignity in the care of all patients.

JOURNAL ENTRIES 7

Journal Entries

BERI SUNJO

Grand Canyon University

NRS 493

12/19/2020

Journal Entries

Week #1

New Practice Approaches

I have learned and gone through different peer reviewed articles which has enabled me to become competent and familiar with new practice approaches in nursing practice. So much has changed in the 21st century as nurses and healthcare workers in general have adopted evidence based strategies in solving eminent and persistent diseases. An example is where use of hand hygiene to decrease chances of getting hospital acquired infection is implemented in different hospitals (Patelarou et al., 2017). Other conditions such as obesity, asthma, and diabetes have evidence based strategies to tackle them. Nurses and healthcare practitioners are also focusing more on patient based strategies as diseases and health concerns are different which helps them treat conditions appropriately. The use of statistics to improve healthcare outcomes has also been improved in the 21st century as nurses evaluate patient outcomes using statistics which helps them to devise new methods that are relevant to certain conditions and patients based strategies in healthcare.

Inter-professional Collaboration

I have observed and experienced a lot when it comes to inter-professional collaboration. I believe that as a nurse, I need to always partner with other professionals in the organization to ensure that I achieve and improve patient care. An example is where information technology professional’s partners with nurses to come up with relevant technology to for example improve safety of the patients in the wards (Kristensen, Nymann & Konradsen, 2015). I have also learned that collaboration makes work easier and improves quality of care that is given by professions in care. Accountability and transparency also comes with inter-professional collaboration as nurses and other professionals have to work together to ensure that an objectives is achieved.

Health Disparities

I have learned that health disparities need to be advocated for by nurses for patients to receive quality healthcare irrespective of their economic, social, and political orientation in the society. This can be done through lobbying federal and state governments to increase resource allocation which will consequentially improve buying of drugs and improvement in health facilities in vulnerable areas and populations such as immigrants and refugees as well as African American communities and other minority groups in America (Knipe et al., 2020). I have also noted that wealthy people are always faced with chronic diseases such as diabetes, obesity, and heart conditions because of the foods and lifestyle they live compared to poor people whose prevalence of these diseases are not prevalent as seen among economically stable persons in America.

Ethical Considerations in Healthcare

Observing ethical code of conduct in healthcare is relevant in ensuring that patients’ rights are not crossed and nurse’s relevance of decisions they make during care of the patients. An example is where I have learned that patient’s informed consent is crucial and legally binding before a procedure can be performed on the patients (Suleiman, 2019). Privacy and confidential of information is also crucial ethical conduct that nurses need to have with the information of patients as when they leak it without patients consent they can be sued an pay for damages an even their license revoked. I have also learned to be accountable for my actions as a nurse that makes me become more responsible and concentrate on doing what is right for the patient. Non-maleficence, fidelity, beneficence, normative ethics are some of the ethics that I have learned that they exist in the nursing practice and they are important in observing if a nurse wants to improve patient outcomes.

Population Health Concerns

My reflective journal for this week is on population healthcare concern. Despite the expanding literature on the importance role public policy plays in influencing the broader determinants of the public’s health, profound differences exist among jurisdictions in the attention placed by the State – as represented by public health authorities and agencies – upon such activities. In this reflective journal we examine the dominant public health models of Canada and USA The Canadian public health communities are focused upon individualized approaches to risk management. In contrast, the US public health scenes are more oriented toward broader approaches to health determinants. We argue that the extent to which governments, public health agencies and public health workers concern themselves with public policy approaches to address broader determinants of health depends upon the particular model of health adhered to within each jurisdiction. And whether a health model is adopted depends upon the ideological and political context within which a nation is situated. Canada represents a situation where concerted effort to influence governmental Population Health Concerns policy directions by the public health community could reap significant benefits

The role of Technology in improving Healthcare Outcomes

The role of technology in improving health care outcomes. A central plank of health care reform is an expanded role for educated consumers interacting with responsive health care teams. However, for individuals to realize the benefits of health education also requires a high level of engagement. Population studies have documented a gap between expectations and the actual performance of behaviours related to participation in health care and prevention. Interventions to improve self-care have shown improvements in self-efficacy, patient satisfaction, coping skills, and perceptions of social support. Significant clinical benefits have been seen from trials of self-management or lifestyle interventions across conditions such as diabetes, coronary heart disease, heart failure and rheumatoid arthritis. However, the focus of many studies has been on short-term outcomes rather that long term effects. There is also some evidence that participation in patient education programs is not spread evenly across socio economic groups. This review considers three other issues that may be important in increasing the public health impact of patient education. The first is health literacy, which is the capacity to seek, understand and act on health information. Although health literacy involves an individual’s competencies, the health system has a primary responsibility in setting the parameters of the health interaction and the style, content and mode of information. Secondly, much patient education work has focused on factors such as attitudes and beliefs. That small changes in physical environments can have large effects on behavior and can be utilized in self-management and chronic disease research.

Health Policy

Healthcare policies are relevant in addressing healthcare concerns in the society and in the country in this case America. I have learned so much about healthcare concerns which include different policies which include Medicare, Medicaid, and affordable care act which were enacted to improve healthcare outcomes. I have also learned a lot about the importance of advocacy as a nurse which enables governments to increase resource both physical and financial in healthcare sectors or come up with health policies that are meant to improve health conditions of patient populations. However, health policies are not just enacted at national and state levels only but even at the workplace. An example is where at the place I work, there is a policy not to smoke tobacco or drink alcohol at the workplace. This ensures that there is reduction of conditions that are associated with alcohol and smoking related lifestyles

Practices of culturally sensitive care

Being sensitive t cultural orientation of the patients is one of the strategies that is used by health professionals to increase quality of patient care. I have learned that as a nurse, it is always good to be sensitive about culture and language that patients speak so that one can resonate well with patients for them to feel comfortable. Studies show that patients recover faster or pen up to health professionals when they know that they are from their culture or that they understand their cultural diversity. This means that as a healthcare professional, one need to develop listening skills, be aware of cultural diversity, and stop making assumptions which might lead to judgment from the patients.

Ensuring the integrity of human dignity in the care of all patients

Privacy, confidentiality, and respect are some of the issues that patients expect from nurses and other health care professionals when attending to them to ensure that they preserve their dignity in their care. Through beneficence and non-maleficence ethics, nurses should always ensure that they give patients human dignity required (Winter, 2018). Through continuum of care, nurses and healthcare professionals can also ensure that they give their patients human dignity through quality of care to ensure their safety in hospital. Effective communication and being sensitive to older patient needs is an expression of human dignity from nurses.

Health care delivery and clinical systems

I have learned about the clinical systems importance in storing and manipulating patient data. This is essential as it enables people to come up with treatment plans and diagnostic tools in nursing which eases work and improves patient’s outcomes. Healthcare delivery system comprise of social expectations, budget, technology, and structure of healthcare and how this can be utilized to improve community healthcare (Miller et al., 2020). I have learned that this is essential as it enables organizations to make informed decisions in healthcare. One of the clinical systems that I have come to learn about and is widely used by the clinicians is electronic health records which are essential in manipulating healthcare data.

Leadership and economic models

There are different leadership skills that I have learned that exist in the nursing profession. They include servant leadership, democratic, and transformative leadership. However, I prefer to use democratic leadership skills as it involves team work and inter-professional collaboration which is essential in ensuring that there is achievement of goals and objectives of the organization collectively (Duncan, 2019). I have also established that economic models are essential in achieving success in leadership in healthcare. Education and continued working hard to gain experience are relevant to one improving their leadership and economic skills in the healthcare organization.

References

Alotaibi, Y. K., & Federico, F. (2017). The impact of health information technology on patient

safety. Saudi medical journal, 38(12), 1173.

Duncan, M. (2019). Integrated care systems and nurse leadership. British journal of community

nursing, 24(11), 538-542.

Knipe, D., Evans, H., Marchant, A., Gunnell, D., & John, A. (2020). Mapping population mental

health concerns related to COVID-19 and the consequences of physical distancing: a Google trends analysis. Wellcome Open Research, 5(82), 82.

Kristensen, N., Nymann, C., & Konradsen, H. (2015). Implementing research results in clinical

practice-the experiences of healthcare professionals. BMC health services

research, 16(1), 48

Patelarou, A. E., Kyriakoulis, K. G., Stamou, A. A., Laliotis, A., Sifaki-Pistolla, D.,

Matalliotakis, M., … & Patelarou, E. (2017). Approaches to teach evidence-based practice among health professionals: an overview of the existing evidence. Advances in medical education and practice, 8, 455.

Suleiman AlMakhamreh, S. (2019). Ethical Considerations for Health Care in Social Work in

Jordan: What Could Bring Joy to Elderly Refugees in Times of Despair?. Ethics and Social Welfare, 13(4), 409-423.

Miller, K. E., Singh, H., Arnold, R., & Klein, G. (2020). Clinical decision-making in complex

healthcare delivery systems. In Clinical Engineering Handbook (pp. 858-864). Academic Press.

Winter, S. F. (2018). Human dignity as leading principle in public health ethics: a multi-case

analysis of 21st century German health policy decisions. International journal of health policy and management, 7(3), 210.