An Application For Cbu 's Nurse Practitioner

As I Reflect over this semester, it is difficult to believe that I am halfway through the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program. The (DNP) program has changed my life considerably by providing me with the tools I need to become successful in my nursing career. My goal in this program is to become the best care provider and nurse educator possible. Acquiring knowledge, technical skills, and examples of the reading assignments continue to help me meet my outcomes in this program. Also, each semester, my experience in writing continues to grow as well as my understanding of the purpose of a scholarly project (Kung, 2012).

I am a recent baccalaureate graduate of Charleston Southern University. I received my Bachelor of Science in Nursing in May of 2015. On June 20, 2015, I received my NCLEX-RN results and became a registered nurse in the state of South Carolina. After considering my options for a graduate program, I happily accepted my offer from Case Western Reserve University and moved to Cleveland to pursue my graduate studies. Over the course of my undergraduate career, theories were included in the curriculum but not in depth. It is for this reason that I am excited to partake in this course – to learn the foundational and applicable theories of the nursing profession.

Healthcare systems and the way safe, quality health care is delivered are continually changing to better serve patients and communities. Professional nursing practice is a large component in the healthcare system today. Back in the 1960s, professional nursing leaders tried to adopt the bachelor degree programs as the only educational track to become a registered nurse (Creasia & Friberg, 2011). Due to nursing shortages and demands this motive did not hold fast. Individuals entering the nursing profession today must first decide which educational pathway to take to become a Registered Nurse (RN).

In my current role as a nurse educator I feel the desire to pursue my dream of obtaining a master’s degree, specializing in nursing education. It has been 27 years since I have sat in the student chair in a classroom; therefore, I anticipate a number of challenges and barriers to overcome. In this paper I will present and describe three challenges that I expect to be faced with over the next two years. I will also discuss the strategies I plan to use to address these challenges.

Through the many trips that my family has taken to the hospital due to various reasons, I have become fond of the hospital and its many wonders. After all the things that the medical field has done for me and my family, I decided to contribute to my local hospital to volunteer and help out those who pay visits to the hospital. Through my exposure to various clinical populations, I want to improve my ability to serve others in this capacity that can guide me towards the medical profession in the future.

Since the capstone project started early on beginning of the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program, I was able to discuss and work personally with Dr. Spicer as my practice mentor in selecting the appropriate topic for my project. Dr. Spicer was very involved in choosing my second option for new capstone project # 1 related to simulation lab and faculty teaching and learning. The patient simulation laboratory (SIM lab) uses state-of-the-art equipment that provides students and faculty with the opportunity to tackle real-life scenarios in a safe and supported environment. Further, I learned that active learning involves the faculty through participation and investment in exploring content knowledge in all phases of the learning process. It requires educational activities that provide faculty with the opportunity to engage actively in courses and respond to the learning situation.

I enjoy working alongside other healthcare professional. I believe that collaborative practice is the future of medicine; thus, I would appreciate the chance to work alongside medical students to provide an optimal healthcare for the clinic patients. I have previously collaborated with the medical students more than once by working closely with the Boarder Health Project. Because of these collaborations, we were able to administer more than 150 flu shots, in addition to counseling patients on the proper use of OTC medication.

In furtherance of a lifelong desire to become an advanced practice nurse, I herewith articulate my professional development plan (PDP) based on Walden University’s program of study (POS), in alignment with my personal and professional goals. I welcome this opportunity to begin the development of professional portfolio of evidence documenting my course of nursing practice. I am equally hopeful that this will be a springboard for recording my career progression as an electronic portfolio (e-portfolio). The e-portfolio gives added benefits of conciseness, confidentiality, portability, and ease of access over traditional paper portfolio. Also, it gives the benefit of career mapping to organizations intent on helping to shape and advance my professional career path (Thompson, T. 2011). I intend to leverage upon these benefits to showcase my competencies, professional attainment, and lifelong learning as I articulate my value to the healthcare industry.

Some of the dilemmas associated with today’s nursing force are: Many are under-educated and task-oriented, unaware of their patient’s plan of care, medical histories, or pertinent results. Too many rely on clinical coordinators and team leaders, when it comes to critical thinking, therefore, miss out on the vital fundamentals, which make nursing such an honorable profession (Grietens, 2007, p. 10). In order to create a stronger, more knowledgeable nursing workforce, entry-level requirements for RNs, as well as APRNs, need to be uniform. In addition, research shows bachelors and masters prepared nurses, result in better patient outcomes. An example of a proposed solution includes:

The project innovations were applied globally meaning they were instilled in textbooks, school curriculums, certifications, accreditation and many more. That ensures that nursing professionals will be on the “same page” and working towards the same goals of continuously improving the quality and safety in health care

No matter which perspective the view is from, most everyone would agree that millions of nurses worldwide are involved in a profession that is constantly changing and changing at a very quick pace (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 2011). This transformation is due to a number of factors like demographic changes, the shortage of health care professionals, economic downfalls on the health care system, and evolving technology (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 2011). In an effort to support and promote the future of nursing and advancement in health care, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) took on a 2 year initiative that

My practicum setting will be an associate degree nursing program, Joliet Junior College (JJC), one of the oldest community colleges in Illinois. The mission of the school is focused on offering students an affordable, accessible valued education for a lifelong profession in nursing, and to serve the community (Joliet Junior College [JJC], n. d.). Accordingly, the school’s philosophy is based on preparing students to be exceptional providers in the growing healthcare system, providing safe and high quality care (JJC, n. d.). The foundation of the JJC nursing program is based on four major principles: client, environment, health and nursing (JJC, n.d), while their conceptual framework is grounded in the fundamental structure of three major theories which forms the basis of the concepts, skills, and principles of the nursing practice (JJC, n. d.). The three major theories are: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Levels of Prevention and the Nursing Process (JJC, n.d.). Joliet Junior College nursing school offers a competitive program and combines the traditional classroom experiences, in-class high-fidelity simulations labs, online augmentation theory lectures, and clinical experiences in health facilities throughout the community (Joliet Junior College [JJC], 2016).

In the ever changing world of healthcare, healthcare organizations in order to be the most efficient in their delivery of healthcare, streamline their organizational structure to stay competitive, while providing the best patient care possible. This process can place increasingly undue stress onto its staff resulting in nurses having to do more with less available resources which ultimately increases their workload, has them working longer hours due to staff shortage, which contributes to an increase in the nurse burnout rates. This eventually filters down to the patient’s level of care and means less time spent on each

Throughout this program, each class has really broadened by skills and knowledge to prepare me for practice as a family nurse practitioner delivering excellent evidence-based medicine. The first class where we learned about the role of the advance practice nurse really set the tone for what to expect as a provider and what each role entails. Moving on to the theory class, it was discovered how much nursing theory really plays a part in caring for patients. My knowledge was increased on the different theories and how one can relate them to patient situations by participating in discussion questions and preparing papers. Also, it was known that theory is what guides research to better patient care. Pathophysiology was really the building block for the makeup of the human body. One has to be proficient in knowing how different systems in the body function and how they can be affected by other processes. By reading the provided textbooks, writing papers, and participating in discussion with other classmates, my knowledge of pathophysiology was taken to a new level. The 2 advanced nursing classes really reinforced common problems that can affect different parts of the human body and how care should be managed for these conditions. There was an abundance of learning during these 2 classes that really helped prepare us for clinical rotations and

With the continuous changes in healthcare, evaluation of students’ clinical knowledge and skills relies on the need for continuous evaluation. Evaluation is the process of using data to make judgements about students’ individual performance. Evaluation of clinical performance provides data from which educators use to judge the extent to which students have acquired specific learning outcomes (Billings & Halstead, 2016). With the use of best practice evaluation methods, clinical performance can be evaluated to ensure quality patient care. Educators face a challenging task when providing evaluation that is fair and reasonable. Tasked with evaluating students in the clinical setting, educators can evaluate how students integrate theory and apply it to real-life situations. Observations of performance in the clinical setting should focus on the outcomes to be met and competencies to be developed (Oermann & Gaberson, 2014). Developing a clinical evaluation tool to determine whether students can think critically, prioritize problems, and complete patient care procedures correctly is essential. There are a variety of evaluation methods to use in nursing education. Depending on the learning outcomes to be measured will determine which tool best evaluates the students’ performance. Clinical practice is an essential and highly significant component of nursing education. Education programs are obligated to respond to government requests for well-educated healthcare professionals.