Learners are required to maintain a Reflective Journal integrating leadership and inquiry into current practice.
In your journal, you will reflect on the personal knowledge and skills gained in the current course addressing a variable combination of the following: 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, and/or health disparities. Outline what you discovered about your professional practice, personal strengths and weaknesses that surfaced, what additional resources and abilities could be introduced to a given situation to influence optimal outcomes, and finally how you met the competencies aligned to this course.
Submit your Reflective Journal to both the instructor and the Typhon Tracking System under the corresponding course section. Learners must submit this deliverable in Typhon and LoudCloud. Failure to submit in both locations can result in an “Incomplete” for the course.
Reflective Journal
Reflective practice is one of the ways in which nurses and nurse practitioners improve the quality, safety, and efficiency of care they offer to those in need. Reflective practice enables the nurses to examine their encounters, goals that were achieved, things that could be done to achieve better outcomes, and ways of doing better should similar experience arise. One way of promoting reflective practice in nursing is the use of reflective journals. Reflective journals enable the nurses to keep an account of their daily experiences and identify their strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities that must be explored for them to achieve their personal and professional goals. Therefore, this paper is a reflective journal of my clinical experiences in this semester.
The experience that I got this semester has been highly important in promoting my personal and professional development. The semester has exposed me to a number of issues such as new practice approaches, healthcare delivery, intra-professional collaboration, ethical considerations in healthcare, technology use in health, health policy, economic models, and leadership, and addressing population concerns. Throughout these experiences, I have gained valuable knowledge and skills that are important in building my ability to address myriad of issues that health organizations face in the modern world (Buttaro et al., 2019). The experiences have also enabled me to understand my areas of strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities that I need to explore to achieve my personal and professional goals.
I have discovered a number of issues that relate to my professional practice from the experience I got from the activities of the semester. One of them is the significance of evidence-based practice in nursing. I discovered that the ability of nurses to provide care that optimizes the health outcomes of care depends largely on the use of evidence-based practices. Nurses should make their decisions using best available evidence obtained from clinical studies. I have learned that evidence-based practice promotes the provision of safe, efficient, cost-effective and high quality care to patients and vulnerable populations. I have also discovered the critical role that technology plays in the provision of nursing care. Unlike in the past, technology is highly utilized in the provision of care in nursing in the current world. The need for technology use in the provision of nursing care is attributed to its benefits that include minimization of safety issues and reduction of operational costs in health (Buttaro et al., 2019).
The experiences I got from the activities of this semester have also led to my discovery of the importance of intra-and inter-professional collaboration in nursing practice. Intra-professional collaboration largely focuses on nurses from different specialties and professional experiences working together in assessing, planning, implementing, and evaluating care. Inter-professional collaboration on the other hand incorporates the roles of other healthcare providers in the provision of care to the patients (Buttaro et al., 2019). I have learned that intra and inter-professional collaboration results in enhanced outcomes of care such as patient satisfaction with care, reduced hospital stay and cost of care, and communication between healthcare providers.
The last thing that I have discovered relating to my professional practice from this semester’s activities is the importance of shared.
DNP 810 Topic 8 Reflective Journal
decision-making. Shared decision-making is the practice of incorporating the views of the patients into the plans of care. The healthcare providers prioritize the needs and perceptions of the patients into the decisions they make relating to the care they need. Shared decision-making is important since it minimizes the risk of adverse events in the care that is offered to the patients. It also promotes patient-centeredness since plans of care are developed with the aim of addressing the unique needs of the patients (Lewenson, 2017). Therefore, I will explore further these discoveries to determine the ways in which efficiency in healthcare can be achieved with their use.
The experiences throughout this semester also provided me with insights into my abilities as a professional nurse. I learned about my strengths and weaknesses as a nurse. I discovered a number of strengths that can be utilized to improve my efficiency as a nurse. One of them is that I am flexible. I learned that I could fit to situations easily. I can change my actions or decisions based on the facts presented on an issue. I believe that flexibility is needed for nurses to make decisions that address the actual and emerging needs of the patients they care. The other strength that I discovered from the experiences in the semester is that I am an effective communicator. I have excellent interpersonal skills that enable me to pass my message effectively. I am a good listener, which enables me to make sound decisions after considering the views that others raise on an issue.
The experiences in the semester also made me to discover some of my weaknesses. One of them is the fact that I am a perfectionist. I tend to focus more on ensuring that the things that I do are done to the perfection they need. This character is my weakness since I spend too much time on an issue that might be considered less critical in the provision of care. The other weakness that I discovered is that I lack adequate knowledge and skills needed in translating evidence into practice. I therefore need to engage in activities that will address this area to ensure that I support evidence-based practice in the organizations that I will work with in the future.
Throughout this semester, I researched on the various issues related to Huntington disease. It included the examination of its causes, risk factors, prevalence in the population, and ways in which the disease can be treated. I however discovered that optimal outcomes for the patients with Huntington Disease could be achieved with a consideration of a number of the use of evidence in their management. It became evident from the research that more evidence is needed on the ways in which the health outcomes of patients with this disease can be optimized. The evidence can be achieved from undertaking quantitative and qualitative studies to explore the experiences of these patients and ways of incorporating them into care.
I met the competencies aligned to this course in a number of ways. Firstly, I participated in inter-professional activities that aimed at improving my personal and professional skills in nursing. I also participated in the use of technology to explore ways of improving outcomes of care for different populations. This included engaging in the use of data from studies to make informed decisions on the care needed by diverse populations. I also met the competencies aligned to the course by demonstrating my leadership in projects that focused on improving clinical outcomes in nursing practice. I provided feedback to those I led while serving as a leader for clinical improvement initiatives in the hospital that I work.
In summary, engaging in the different learning activities throughout the semester has been highly influential on my personal and professional development. It has enabled me discover the different issues that affect nursing practice. It has also enabled me to understand my strengths as well as weaknesses as a nurse. Therefore, I believe that the activities that I engaged enabled me to meet the competencies that align with the objectives of the course.
Important information for writing discussion questions and participation
Welcome to class
Hello class and welcome to the class and I will be your instructor for this course. This is a -week course and requires a lot of time commitment, organization, and a high level of dedication. Please use the class syllabus to guide you through all the assignments required for the course. I have also attached the classroom policies to this announcement to know your expectations for this course. Please review this document carefully and ask me any questions if you do. You could email me at any time or send me a message via the “message” icon in halo if you need to contact me. I check my email regularly, so you should get a response within 24 hours. If you have not heard from me within 24 hours and need to contact me urgently, please send a follow up text to
I strongly encourage that you do not wait until the very last minute to complete your assignments. Your assignments in weeks 4 and 5 require early planning as you would need to present a teaching plan and interview a community health provider. I advise you look at the requirements for these assignments at the beginning of the course and plan accordingly. I have posted the YouTube link that explains all the class assignments in detail. It is required that you watch this 32-minute video as the assignments from week 3 through 5 require that you follow the instructions to the letter to succeed. Failure to complete these assignments according to instructions might lead to a zero. After watching the video, please schedule a one-on-one with me to discuss your topic for your project by the second week of class. Use this link to schedule a 15-minute session. Please, call me at the time of your appointment on my number. Please note that I will NOT call you.
Please, be advised I do NOT accept any assignments by email. If you are having technical issues with uploading an assignment, contact the technical department and inform me of the issue. If you have any issues that would prevent you from getting your assignments to me by the deadline, please inform me to request a possible extension. Note that working fulltime or overtime is no excuse for late assignments. There is a 5%-point deduction for every day your assignment is late. This only applies to approved extensions. Late assignments will not be accepted.
If you think you would be needing accommodations due to any reasons, please contact the appropriate department to request accommodations.
Plagiarism is highly prohibited. Please ensure you are citing your sources correctly using APA 7th edition. All assignments including discussion posts should be formatted in APA with the appropriate spacing, font, margin, and indents. Any papers not well formatted would be returned back to you, hence, I advise you review APA formatting style. I have attached a sample paper in APA format and will also post sample discussion responses in subsequent announcements.
Your initial discussion post should be a minimum of 200 words and response posts should be a minimum of 150 words. Be advised that I grade based on quality and not necessarily the number of words you post. A minimum of TWO references should be used for your initial post. For your response post, you do not need references as personal experiences would count as response posts. If you however cite anything from the literature for your response post, it is required that you cite your reference. You should include a minimum of THREE references for papers in this course. Please note that references should be no more than 5 years old except recommended as a resource for the class. Furthermore, for each discussion board question, you need ONE initial substantive response and TWO substantive responses to either your classmates or your instructor for a total of THREE responses. There are TWO discussion questions each week, hence, you need a total minimum of SIX discussion posts for each week. I usually post a discussion question each week. You could also respond to these as it would count towards your required SIX discussion posts for the week.
I understand this is a lot of information to cover in 5 weeks, however, the Bible says in Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. Even in times like this, we are encouraged by God’s word that we have that ability in us to succeed with His strength. I pray that each and every one of you receives strength for this course and life generally as we navigate through this pandemic that is shaking our world today. Relax and enjoy the course!
Hi Class,
Please read through the following information on writing a Discussion question response and participation posts.
Contact me if you have any questions.
Important information on Writing a Discussion Question
- Your response needs to be a minimum of 150 words (not including your list of references)
- There needs to be at least TWO references with ONE being a peer reviewed professional journal article.
- Include in-text citations in your response
- Do not include quotes—instead summarize and paraphrase the information
- Follow APA-7th edition
- Points will be deducted if the above is not followed
Participation –replies to your classmates or instructor
- A minimum of 6 responses per week, on at least 3 days of the week.
- Each response needs at least ONE reference with citations—best if it is a peer reviewed journal article
- Each response needs to be at least 75 words in length (does not include your list of references)
- Responses need to be substantive by bringing information to the discussion or further enhance the discussion. Responses of “I agree” or “great post” does not count for the word count.
- Follow APA 7th edition
- Points will be deducted if the above is not followed
- Remember to use and follow APA-7th edition for all weekly assignments, discussion questions, and participation points.
- Here are some helpful links
- Student paper example
- Citing Sources
- The Writing Center is a great resource
References
Buttaro, T. M., Polgar-Bailey, P., Sandberg-Cook, J., & Trybulski, J. (2019). Primary Care E-Book: A Collaborative Practice. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Lewenson, S. (Ed.). (2017). Public health nursing: Practicing population-based care. Jones & Bartlett Learning.
