Journal Entry

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Critical reflection on your growth and development during your practicum experience in a clinical setting helps you 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 “Population-Focused Nurse Practitioner Competencies” in the Learning Resources, and consider the quality measures or indicators advanced practice nurses must possess in your specialty.
• Refer to your “Clinical Skills Self-Assessment Form” you submitted in Week 1 and consider your strengths and opportunities for improvement.
• Refer to your Patient Log in Meditrek; consider the patient activities you have experienced in your practicum experience and reflect on your observations and experiences.

In 450–500 words, address the following:

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 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 were available?
• What evidence-based practice did you use for the patients?
• What would you do differently?
• How are you managing patient flow and volume? How can you apply your growing skillset to be a social change agent within your community?

Communicating and Feedback

• Reflect on how you might improve your skills and knowledge and how to communicate those efforts to your Preceptor.
• Answer these questions: How am I doing? What is missing?
• Reflect on the formal and informal feedback you received from your Preceptor.