Practicum Experience Plan

Practicum Experience Plan

Overview:

Your Practicum experience includes working in a clinical setting that will help you gain the knowledge and skills needed as an advanced practice nurse. In your practicum experience, you will develop a practicum plan that sets forth objectives to frame and guide your practicum experience.

As part of your Practicum Experience Plan, you will not only plan for your learning in your practicum experience but also work through various patient visits with focused notes as well as one (1) journal entry.

Complete each section below.

Part 1: Quarter/Term/Year and Contact Information

 

Section A

Quarter/Term/Year:

Student Contact Information

Name: Teresa Peterson

Street Address:

City, State, Zip:

Home Phone:

Work Phone:

Cell Phone:

Fax:

E-mail:

Preceptor Contact Information

Name: Reynald Omega

Organization: Omega Advanced Health Practice

Street Address: 8465 Phoenician Ct

City, State, Zip:

Work Phone:

Cell Phone:

Fax:

Professional/Work E-mail:

Part 2: Individualized Practicum Learning Objectives

Refer to the instructions in Week 2 to create individualized practicum learning objectives that meet the requirements for this course. These objectives should be aligned specifically to your Practicum experience. Your objectives should address your self-assessment of the skills found in the “PMHNP Clinical Skills Self-Assessment Form” you completed in Week 1.

As you develop your individualized practicum learning objective, be sure to write them using the SMART format. Use the resources found in Week 2 to guide your development. Once you review your resources, continue and complete the following. Note: Please make sure each of your objectives are connected to your self-assessment. Also, consider that you will need to demonstrate how you are advancing your knowledge in the clinical specialty. 

Objective 1: To differentiate between psychophysiology and psychopathological conditions and understand the differences between psychophysiological and psychopathological conditions within three months of the practicum.

Planned Activities: I intend to utilize varied resources to bolster my knowledge of psychophysiological and psychopathological conditions. In this regard, I will watch videos on this topic for 45 minutes every day. I will also read journals and other educative resources on these conditions for thirty minutes daily.

I also intend to work with my preceptor and members of the clinical team to evaluate these conditions and have better insight into mental health illnesses and how to distinguish them.

Mode of Assessment: 

This objective will be assessed through reflective journaling. Learning-related incidents and the major learning points in psychophysiological and psychopathological conditions will be captured as the learning process progresses. This documentation will help me reflect on these learned aspects and distinguish psychopathological and psychophysiological conditions.

PRAC Course Outcome(s) Addressed:

• Assess advanced practice nursing skills in psychiatric care.
  • Distinguishing various mental health illnesses is the hallmark of psychiatric care (Hurley et al., 2022). Thus, it is important that psychiatric nurses have the knowledge and skills to differentiate between psychophysiological and psychopathological conditions.
• Demonstrate the ability to distinguish psychiatric presentations.

Objective 2: To accurately select, implement and interpret psychiatric screening tools within 10 weeks of the practicum.

Planned Activities: 

To complete 16-20 hours performing a psychiatric examination. I will work closely with my preceptor and constantly seek his assistance in areas where I find difficulties selecting and interpreting psychiatric screening tools. I also intend to enhance my knowledge in selecting and interpreting psychiatric screening tools by reading literature on the same and watching tutorials on the same throughout the practicum period.

Mode of Assessment: 

This objective will be assessed through a self-assessment tool that tracks the number of hours spent in the psychiatric evaluation and the number of times I accurately select, interpret, and implement psychiatric screening tools.

PRAC Course Outcome(s) Addressed:

• Assess advanced practice nursing skills in selecting, interpreting, and implementing psychiatric screening instruments.
• Demonstrate the ability to accurately diagnose various mental health illnesses through appropriate selection and interpretation of mental health screening tools.
  • Xu et al. (2022) report that screening tools help in the early identification of various mental health illnesses. By accurately selecting psychiatric screening tools, caregivers give a better guarantee of improving the clinical outcomes of patients.

 Objective 3: To be confident in comprehensive psychiatric evaluation skills and diagnostic reasoning by the end of the 12th week.

Planned Activities: I will observe and participate in mental status examination processes during the first two weeks of the practicum. I will also engage my preceptor and ask questions appropriately during these exercises to help me understand aspects of mental status examinations that are problematic to me. I also intend to bolster my knowledge of psychiatric evaluation by reading literature on the same for at least 45 minutes every other day through the practicum period.

Mode of Assessment: 

This objective will be assessed through a self-assessment tool that tracks the duration spent reading literature on mental health illnesses as well as my ability to evaluate patients with psychiatric presentations. 

PRAC Course Outcome(s) Addressed:

• Assess advanced practice nursing skills in performing a comprehensive psychiatric evaluation.
• Demonstrate the ability to accurately diagnose various mental health illnesses through appropriate diagnostic reasoning.
  • Gordon et al.(2022) assert that having excellent clinical and diagnostic reasoning helps avoid unnecessary investigations, allows for cost minimization, and helps in improving clinical outcomes.

 

Part 3: Projected Timeline/Schedule

Estimate how many hours you expect to work on your Practicum each week. *Note: All of your hours and activities must be supervised by your Preceptor and completed onsite. Your Preceptor will approve all hours, but your activities will be approved by both your Preceptor and Instructor. Any changes to this plan must be approved.

This timeline is intended as a planning tool; your actual schedule may differ from the projections you are making now.

I intend to complete the 144 or 160 Practicum hours (as applicable) according to the following timeline/schedule. I also understand that I must see at least 80 patients during my practicum experience. I understand that I may not complete my practicum hours sooner than 8 weeks. I understand I may not be in the practicum setting longer than 8 hours per day unless pre-approved by my faculty.

	Number of Clinical Hours Projected for Week	Number of Weekly Hours for Professional Development	Number of Weekly Hours for Practicum Coursework
Week 1	10	7	6
Week 2	20	6	5
Week 3	20	6	5
Week 4	10	7	6
Week 5	20	6	5
Week 6	12	6	5
Week 7	12	6	5
Week 8	10	6	5
Week 9	14	7	6
Week 10	14	6	5
Week 11	12	8	4
Total Hours (must meet the following requirements)	160 Hours

 

 

Part 4 – Signatures

 

Student Signature (electronic):                                    Date: 

 

Practicum Faculty Signature (electronic)**:                        Date:

** Faculty signature signifies approval of Practicum Experience Plan (PEP)

Submit your Practicum Experience Plan on or before Day 7 of Week 2 for faculty review and approval.

Once approved, you will receive a copy of the PEP for your records. You must share an approved copy with your Preceptor. The Preceptor is not required to sign this form.

References

Gordon, D., Rencic, J. J., Lang, V. J., Thomas, A., Young, M., & Durning, S. J. (2022). Advancing the assessment of clinical reasoning across the Health Professions: Definitional and Methodologic Recommendations. Perspectives on Medical Education, 11(2), 108–104. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40037-022-00701-3

Hurley, J., Lakeman, R., Linsley, P., Ramsay, M., & Mckenna-Lawson, S. (2022). Utilizing the mental health nursing workforce: A scoping review of mental health nursing clinical roles and identities. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, 31(4), 796–822. https://doi.org/10.1111/inm.12983

Xu, J., Willems, A., Li, V., Glozier, N., Batterham, P. J., Malone, V., Morris, R. W., & Rissel, C.(2022). Evaluation of a mental health screening tool using cross-sectional surveys in a workplace setting. BMJ Open, 12(5). https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-052155

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As you establish your goals and objectives for this course, you are committing to an organized plan that will frame your practicum experience in a clinical setting, including planned activities, assessment, and achievement of defined outcomes. In particular, they must address the categories of clinical reasoning, quality in your clinical specialty, and interpersonal, collaborative practice.
For this Assignment, you will consider the areas you aim to focus on to gain practical experience as an advanced practice nurse. Then, you will develop a Practicum Experience Plan (PEP) containing the objectives you will fulfill in order to achieve your aims. In this practicum experience, when developing your goals and objectives, be sure to keep psychotherapy approaches and techniques in mind.

TO PREPARE
• Review your Clinical Skills Self-Assessment Form you submitted last week and think about areas for which you would like to gain application-level experience and/or continued growth as an advanced practice nurse. How can your experiences in the practicum help you achieve these aims?
• Review the information related to developing objectives provided in this week’s Learning Resources. Your practicum learning objectives that you want to achieve during your practicum experience must be:
• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Results-focused
• Time-bound
• Reflective of the higher-order domains of Bloom’s taxonomy (i.e., application level and above)
Note: Please make sure your objectives are individualized and outlined in your Practicum Experience Plan (PEP). While you may add previous objectives to continue to work toward. You must have 3 new objectives for each class, each quarter.
• Discuss your professional aims and your proposed practicum objectives with your Preceptor to ascertain if the necessary resources are available at your practicum site.
• Select one nursing theory and one counseling/psychotherapy theory to best guide your clinical practice. Explain why you selected these theories. Support your approach with evidence-based literature.
• Create a timeline of practicum activities that demonstrates how you plan to meet these goals and objectives based on your practicum requirements.
ASSIGNMENT
• Record the required information in each area of the Practicum Experience Plan template, including 3–4 measurable practicum learning objectives you will use to facilitate your learning during the practicum experience.