NUR/590AB Practicum Journal

NUR/590AB Practicum Journal
NUR/590A Version 2 / 1

University of Phoenix Material

NUR/590AB Practicum Journal

Please Read Carefully

The primary goal of the practicum journal is to provide a tool where students can document their overall learning and educational growth while completing either a large educational or administrative practicum project. Entries into the practicum journal should be focused on and related to both the student’s objectives and evidence of accomplishments from their approved practicum learning agreement. There should not be any journal entries that are not directly related to the practicum objectives or evidence of accomplishments as clinical hours can only be counted for those types of activities. A minimum of 60 clinical hours of practicum time is needed to successfully complete the project. No clinical hours can be accumulated or recorded in the practicum journal prior to obtaining an approved practicum learning agreement from the NUR/590A facilitator. The practicum journal should be one continuous document noting all clinical hours for the practicum.

The journal itself consists of 3 columns. The first column labeled “date/clinical hours/running total of clinical hours” is where the actual date that the journal entry/activity occurred is placed, the number of clinical hours for that specific journal entry is noted, as well as a running total (RT) of the clinical hours to date. No clinical hour entries in this column should exceed 8 hours in length. Please enter journal hours in increments of whole or .5 hours.

In the second column of the practicum journal labeled “summary of activity”, a very brief summary of the actual clinical journal activity is recorded.

The final, most important portion of the practicum journal is the third column labeled “Objective and Evidence of Accomplishment #” and “Reflective Learning”. For each entry in this column, the Objective and Evidence of Accomplishment # from the practicum learning agreement is noted at the beginning of the entry. In addition, the student learning that occurred while completing the activity is recorded. Reflection on the learning process is required at the MSN level. The journal once completed will be a complete documentation of the overall learning that occurred during the entire practicum process.

Sample Self-Reflective Practicum Journal

Name / Mentor
Mentor’s Phone number
NUR/590
Facilitator / Approved Learning Agreement Date
Date
Clinical Hours
Running Total of Clinical Hours / Brief Summary of Activity / Objective and Evidence of Accomplishment #
(All Journal Entries Must Relate to a Practicum Objective or Evidence of Accomplishment)
Reflective Learning
12/24/2007
7 hrs
RT = 7 hours
12/28/2007
2 hours
RT- 9 hrs
1-3-2008
6 hours
RT- 15 hrs / Completed literature review on evidence-based practice.
Meet with mentor to discuss findings of literature review
Developed educational needs assessment on evidence-based practice to deliver to nurses at facility / Objective # 1a:
A literature review of 15 peer reviewed journal articles on evidence- based practice was completed. In general, the literature review revealed that few nurses use evidence-based practice. I was really surprised to learn this and wondered if this was due to several factors including the lack of nurses with advanced degrees, a lack of general knowledge about evidence based practice, or a lack of clinical time for research regarding the current findings in the field on a particular topic. By doing the literature search, I now have a sound foundation for developing an educational needs assessment on this topic at my facility.
Objective # 1a:
Discussed findings of literature review with mentor. Mentor noted that many nurses may have heard of the term “evidence-based practice” and need additional information on the topic. I was surprised to hear this. Mentor and I spent rest of time discussing the format for my needs assessment. After much discussion, about the different types of needs assessment and the various formats that could be used, I decided to use a short written survey using a Likert scale type format incorporating and asking questions related in the findings of my literature review.
Objective # 1b:
Spent hours attempting to find an educational needs assessment similar to what I wanted to develop on evidence based practice. Finally, developed my own 15 item Likert scale survey on evidence-based practice. I found the development of the survey to be much more difficult to develop than I thought it would be. It seems that every time I developed a question I decided that I needed to change it. I now have a new appreciation for individuals that develop questionnaires and surveys and realized there is no perfect survey and these are always a “work in progress.”