Discussion: Practicum Reflective Journal
Discussion: Practicum Reflective Journal
Discussion: Practicum Reflective Journal
During week one I will say that I have spent most of my time familiarizing myself with the course objectives and getting a stronger understanding of evidence-based practice. I feel I need more of an understanding so that I can identify when evidence based practice is incorporated into my own day to day nursing practice. After reading the lecture notes and going through the course resources I see that evidence based practice is highly resourceful in the field of nursing and the implementation continues to increase satisfactory patient outcomes. Additionally, “Evidence based practice is the conscientious use of current best evidence in making decisions about patient care” (Perdu University, 2017).
But in week one I learned that there are issues when getting nurses to engage in evidence based practice and adhere to the standars. Studies have shown that there are several reasons why nurses fail to adhere to EBP standards, but some factors include, lack of time, inability to understand statistical terms, and inadequate understanding of the jargon used in research articles (Majid, et al., 2011). Overall, I believe that hospitals, clinics, and medical offices should become more involved in pushing the importance of EBP because as nurses we are always involved with clinical decision-making processes.
Week one has also got me acquainted with the mentor mentee relationship as my mentor is a nurse that works at my hospital. I see her as an important support system for me throughout this course, and a necessary guide throughout my education and practice. I had a great discussion with my mentor going over the course objectives and discussing her expectations of me along with my goals. We also came up with success strategies and a list of readings for times when I feel overwhelmed or discouraged. Furthermore, we agreed that communication was key throughout the course and that I active communication was essential to be successful.
References
Majid, S., Foo, S., Luyt, B., Zhang, X., Theng, Y.-L., Chang, Y.-K., & Mokhtar, I. A. (2011). Adopting evidence-based practice in clinical decision making: nurses’ perceptions, knowledge, and barriers. Journal of the Medical Library Association : JMLA, 99(3), 229–236. http://doi.org/10.3163/1536-5050.99.3.010
Purdue University Northwest. (2015, August 12). Evidence-based practice in nursing. Retrieved December 04, 2017, from https://nursingonline.pnw.edu/articles/evidence-based-practice-nursing.aspx
You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.
Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.
Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.
The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.