offering a suggestion or resources to help your colleagues in addressing their personal strengths or challenges, or their career goals. Use  research to support suggestions. 

reponse:

 What I expect from this course is to refine my skills and to transition my thinking from a registered nurse to an advanced practicing

nurse. One of my strengths is empathizing, putting myself in my patient’s position, and having a compassionate approach to assessing and

educating my patients, which can be very beneficial in being a successful practitioner. According to The National Organization of Nurse

Practitioner Faculties’ (2022), the ability to empathize and have compassion when communicating with patients provides care effectively and

is one of the competencies. I find empathizing a  strength because having a provider who really cares and listens is not always easy. My

second strength that requires additional practice is evaluating patients’ signs and symptoms, having an idea of what patients might have, and

effectively providing a plan of care that may include tests and procedures.

     Diversity has been one of the main topics lately regarding providing medical care. Incorporate cultural preferences, values, and health

beliefs in the management plan (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2010). One of my goals during practicum is to educate myself

on different cultures and their practices and beliefs to find an approach to health education. First, gaining the ability to incorporate textbook

knowledge into routine and incorporate that knowledge in a way that the patient can understand. The second goal I want to accomplish

during this course is always to have current knowledge of medicine and break the cycle of concepts that patients have that are either no

longer effective or have detrimental effects on their health. The third goal that I want to work on in this course and future courses is to

change my mindset from following medical orders to being the provider prescribing orders. It is expected that novice nurse practitioners

might experience internal or external stress due to now having more responsibility for patient care ( Barnes, Covelli, & Rubright, 2021). To

alleviate some of the stressors in the future, it will be beneficial to start training myself to think like a Family Nurse Practitioner when I care

for my patients during practicum.

Offering a suggestion or resources to help in addressing their personal strengths or challenges, or their career goals. Use your research to support your suggestions. 

Respond to this post: 

As I begin my first practicum course, I cannot help but feel apprehensive about the next ten weeks and how I will manage clinical hours, classwork, and my other obligations as a mother, wife, and business owner.  Time management will be tested this semester however, I am eager to begin, iron out the wrinkles, and find a new groove.  I expect this course to show me how to take my clinical knowledge and apply it to the clinical setting. Since my nursing practice is primarily in-home care, I believe my strengths are in addressing patients’ socioeconomic status and how it affects their health. According to (Arpey et al., 2017), socioeconomic status affects an individual’s health outcomes and the care they receive within our nation’s healthcare system.  Patients with lower socioeconomic status are more likely to have worse healthcare outcomes, lower life expectancy, and suffer from more chronic conditions (Arpey et al., 2017). Opening the door inside a patient’s home provides a high level of insight into the life of a patient, you suddenly begin to understand the patient that was labeled as a frequent flyer, or you recognize the caregiver support that aids in desirable outcomes versus those who aren’t as fortunate (Rojas-Ocaña et al., 2021). Challenges I anticipate facing is putting trust in my assessment skills, performing new medical procedures, and overall being uncomfortable in a setting I am not familiar with. It has been studied that nurse practitioner students have exhibited a rise in clinical competence by strengthening their knowledge, assessment skills, and their ability to view the patient holistically (Taylor et al., 2021). I expect the clinical hours over the next year will give me the clinical competence that is needed for me to be a successful nurse practitioner.