NURSING

Journal Entry: Practicum Reflection Student’s Name Institution of Affiliation Course Date Learning From Experiences In my practicum experience, I established objectives to boost my clinical competencies in using psychiatric screening tools rigorously, following ethical and legal principles, and doing comprehensive psychiatric assessments. I made significant progress in all three areas, although challenges were thrown up that I had to adapt to, learn, and continuously learn. The challenge of being a problematic patient was that I was a middle-aged man with very severe schizophrenia and poor compliance with medication. Engaging with him requires patience and advanced communication skills to build trust. Motivational interviewing and shared decision-making strategies have been shown to increase adherence to psychiatric treatment (Papus et al., 2022). A problematic case was having a young adult with acute suicidal ideation who needed immediate intervention and risk assessment. To identify suicidal patients, I used the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale (Simpson et al., 2021). The latter challenging patient was an older woman with dementia combined with concurrent depression, for which careful attention to both psychiatric and geriatric problems was required. MMSE measurement and Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS measurement) were used to calculate cognitive decline and depressive symptoms (Arevalo-Rodriguez et al., 2021). I have drawn from these experiences to support the importance of individualized care and the requirement for strong clinical judgment. Psychiatric nursing comprises clinical intuition, rapport building, and standardized screening tools that provide essential guidance. ...