Practicum Journal Entry Assignment Paper
As a future advanced practice nurse, it is important that you can connect your classroom experience to your practicum experience. By applying the concepts, you study in the classroom to clinical settings, you enhance your professional competency. Each week, you complete an Assignment that prompts you to reflect on your practicum experiences and relate them to the material presented in the classroom. This week, you begin documenting your practicum experiences in your Practicum Journal.
Learning Objectives
Students will:
· Analyze nursing and counseling theories to guide practice in psychotherapy*
· Develop goals and objectives for personal practicum experiences*
· Create timelines for practicum activities*
In preparation for this course’s practicum experience, address the following in your Practicum Journal:
· Review the media Clinical Interview: Intake, Assessment, & Therapeutic Alliance in your Learning Resources.
· Select one nursing theory and one counseling theory to best guide your practice in psychotherapy.
Note: For guidance on nursing and counseling theories, refer to the Wheeler textbook in this week’s Learning Resources.
· Explain why you selected these theories. Support your approach with evidence-based literature.
· Develop at least three goals and at least three objectives for the practicum experience in this course.
· Create a timeline of practicum activities based on your practicum requirements.
Note: Be sure to use the Practicum Journal Template, located in this week’s Learning Resources.
Required Readings: Assignment: Practicum – Week 1 Journal Entry
Wheeler, K. (Eds.). (2014). Psychotherapy for the advanced practice psychiatric nurse: A how-to guide for evidence-based practice (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company.
Practicum Journal Entry Assignment Paper
Chapter 1, “The Nurse Psychotherapist and a Framework for Practice” (pp. 3–52)
Required Media
Sommers-Flanagan, J., & Sommers-Flanagan, R. (2012). Clinical interview: Intake, assessment, & therapeutic alliance [Video file]. Mill Valley, CA: Psychotherapy.net.
PLEASE SEE THE ATTACHED Practicum Journal Template AND JOURNAL SAMPLE (TIME LOG & JOURNAL ENTRIES) FOR WRITING THIS ASSIGNMENT…..ALSO FOR THE TIME LOG AND JOURNAL ENTRIES, JUST MAKE UP A REASONABLE INFORMATION AND CLIENT INFORMATIONA
Practicum Experience Time Log and Journal Template
Student Name:
E-mail Address:
Practicum Placement Agency’s Name:
Preceptor’s Name:
Preceptor’s Telephone:
Preceptor’s E-mail Address:
(Continued next page)
Time Log
List the objective(s) met and briefly describe the activities you completed during each time period. If you are not on-site for a specific week, enter “Not on site” for that week in the Total Hours for This Time Frame column. Journal entries are due in Weeks 4, 8, and 11; include your Time Log with all hours logged (for current and previous weeks) each time you submit a journal entry.
You are encouraged to complete your practicum hours on a regular schedule, so you will complete the required hours by the END of WEEK 11.
Time Log
Week
Dates
Times
Total Hours for This Time Frame
Activities/Comments
Learning Objective(s) Addressed
Total Hours Completed:
Journal Entries
· Include references immediately following the content.
· Use APA style for your journal entry and references.
© 2012 Laureate Education Inc. 2
© 2014 Laureate Education, Inc. Page 1 of 3
Practicum Experience Time Log and Journal Template
Student Name:
E-mail Address:
Practicum Placement Agency’s Name:
Preceptor’s Name:
Preceptor’s Telephone:
Preceptor’s E-mail Address:
(Continued next page)
Time Log
List the objective(s) met and briefly describe the activities you completed during each time period. If you are not on-site for a specific week, enter “Not on site” for that week in the Total Hours for This Time Frame column. Journal entries are due in Weeks 4, 8, and 11; include your Time Log with all hours logged (for current and previous weeks) each time you submit a journal entry.
You are encouraged to complete your practicum hours on a regular schedule, so you will complete the required hours by the END of WEEK 11.
Time Log
Week
Dates
Times
Total Hours for This Time Frame
Activities/Comments
Learning Objective(s) Addressed
1
“not on site”
2
6/5/17
8am-5pm
8
Admissions, evaluations, follow-ups, med management, psychotherapy
Mini-mental state examination, CAGE and Beck depression inventory was used
6/6/17
8am-5pm
8
Admissions, evaluations, follow-ups, med management, psychotherapy
Intake and initial assessments were performed. Mini-mental state examination was administered.
Total Hours Completed: 16
Journal Entries
The Client
24-year-old white male self-admitted as an inpatient due to fear of hurting others. Patient is from out of town, currently attending military drills. Patient found out that his significant other he was planning on proposing to has be actively having relations with his step-brother. Patient has a history of fits of rage at a young age that caused hospitalizations of others so he felt it was best he received help before doing harm to others. Patient has no other psychiatric history, no suicidal ideations, not hearing voices or seeing things that are not present, he does not believe others are out to do harm to him. Patient states that no one in his immediate family has history of psychiatric conditions. Patient does report physical and verbal abuse from step-father as a young child. During his teenage years patient was addicted to illicit drugs and alcohol.
Diagnosis
According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders, 5th edition (DSM-5), the patient presents with characteristics of PTSD. The patient exhibits “irritable behavior and angry outbursts (with little or no provocation) typically expressed as verbal or physical aggression, reckless or self-destructive behavior, exaggerated startle response, problems with concentration and sleep disturbance lasting since his early teen years” (American Psychiatric Association, 2013).
Patient states he has difficulty trusting others, assures his back is always to a wall, is easily agitated and tends to frequently relay his anger verbally, was once addicted to illicit drugs to cope with the stress in is life, has difficulty concentrating on simple tasks and must keep himself busy at all time, also states he sleeps very little.
Legal and Ethical Implications
Special concerns with this patient were voiced because of his current non-active role in the military. The patient came from training drills to seek help for his anger. The military has certain requirements for the patient to be able to safely return to drills. Ethically it is important to ensure the patient’s safety first and assess his intent to do harm to others. In the case of this patient, he was kept for observation for three days before being allowed discharge although the patient was addiment that he just needed a safe place for one night and that he did not feel the need to do harm to himself or others. The case can be made that individuals with military training, combat exposure, and ensuing PTSD may find it even more difficult to engage in an accurate appraisal of danger. Training for combat increases reliance on muscle memory or automatic actions in times of perceived threat, training that was provided initially by the military to help soldiers stay alive. But the physiological sensitivity that results from a chronically disordered pattern of arousal as is found in PTSD can set the stage for a quicksilver reactivity that leads to actions in a civilian setting that have criminal justice implications (Tramontin, 2010).
References
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental
disorders (5th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
Tramontin, M. (2010). Exit Wounds: Current Issues Pertaining to Combat-Related PTSD
of Relevance to the Legal System. Developments In Mental Health Law, 29(1), 23-47.
© 2012 Laureate Education Inc. 2
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