NURS 487
Journal 1
Learning Objectives:
Demonstrate theoretical knowledge and information of nursing of assessment and intervention in medical-surgical nursing.
Provide total nursing care within the scope of a practicum nursing student.
Administer patient medications accurately under the supervision of the preceptor.
Complete accurate and thorough documentations regarding patients’ status, diagnosis, medications, care of plan, etc.
Establish professional behavior for self and learning, in attendance, punctuality and preparation, in communicating with staff on the floor and the preceptor. The first practicum shift that I was scheduled for was a night shift on Friday, February 27th, 2015, and my practicum site is located at UMMC 13 East/West. On my first shift, my preceptor gave me a tour and initially, she explained that the floor is divided into two sides. Basically, 13 East/West is a medical-surgical floor and the East side caters more towards long-term acute patients and the West side caters more towards observational, short-term patients. Regardless of the difference in patient acuity, both sides are on telemetry. The staff on the unit is comprised of a very diverse set of individuals, which included Filipinos, Caucasians, African-Americans, Hispanics, and Africans. It was very inspiring to see such a diverse staff working together and there was a genuine sense of closeness and chemistry in the work environment despite their dynamics. During our shift, most of the problems that I witnessed was patient pain management, assistance with miscellaneous things such as providing water, comfort measures, repositioning, etc. There were no significant problems that I have encountered, at least not during our shift, which is worth mentioning. Some of the nursing skills that we performed were patient assessments, medication