Strengths in Clinical Practice - Essay Example

The role of nurses in all these encounters was very important and all of the situations were handled by the nurses very well. My previous clinical experience has helped me to use critical thinking skills to provide patient care and will help me in this preceptorship.

2. Strengths in Clinical Practice (reflect on previous clinical rotations).

- I know my medications before administration e.g. effectiveness, side effects, signs of adverse drug reactions, and/or drug interactions.
- I understand the importance of administrating medication on time and signing them on MAR after administration.
- I review documentation, prior documentation and provide adequate time to document appropriately.
- My fluency in different languages (English, Punjabi, Urdu, and Hindi) is an added asset for the provision of care. E.g. in the cardiac placement, I was called in the Cath lab for translation purposes.
- I looked for new opportunities, during my last placement on the cardiac floor; I got an opportunity to put a catheter in the last 15 minutes of the last day of placement.
- I always document accurately and promptly.
- My strong computer background has helped me to do my work faster than others. E.g. documentation and reading patient notes on a computer

2. Challenges in Clinical Practice (reflect on previous clinical rotations):

- In some hospitals, it is hard to follow Infection control practices as there are no proper hand washing stations around and no proper isolation rooms available for patients.
- I am not comfortable with IV drug administration as I didn’t get the chance to administer IV drugs in my previous clinical experiences.
- I felt time management is another area that I need to improve. In my previous clinical placement, I would often miss my breaks to finish my work.
- In my previous clinical placement, I would get nervous whenever an emergency would arise.
- I didn’t get the opportunity to learn some nursing techniques. E.g. Catherziation,
and Insertion Nasogastric tube.

4. Strategies for learning that have proven effective in the past: (include discussion of how you might incorporate these into this experience).

The previous clinical experiences that have proven effective in the past are:

- Asking nurses and clinical teachers “why”, if I am not able to understand the situation. I think this strategy will be helpful and I will incorporate it in this clinical. In this clinical rotation, even doctors are around so this will allow me to ask questions and further enhance my understanding.


- Another strategy that was helpful in previous clinical rotations was, knowing the meds before administrating them. I researched the meds before administration and it helped me increase my understanding as well as increased my level of comfort. I will follow this strategy in this clinical as it will enhance my understanding as well as help in providing safe patient care.

- Head-to assessments on patients have helped me better understand the diagnosis of my patients. I think this strategy will be helpful in my current experience as I am going to see different scenarios emerge and this will help me better understand the signs and symptoms and diagnosis.

5. Strategies for learning that has proven ineffective in the past: (How might you avoid these during this experience?)

- Time management: In the past clinical rotations, I was not able to manage the time for patient care. I often missed my breaks in my previous rotations.
I will avoid this by planning my care beforehand and will discuss with my preceptor, how to do proper time management on this floor

6. Goal(s) for this Clinical Experience (to be transferred to the Learning Plan after discussion with your preceptor)

- I want to learn the policies and guidelines used in the hospital for infection control.
- I want to learn about medication errors and what needs to be done if medication error occurs.
- I want to learn how to write a proper patient progress note.

7. Additional Comments/ Suggestions:

I am also looking forward to this placement in terms of increasing my skills and comfort in providing patient care Read More