During the practicum, I had the chance to work with my preceptor which provided me the opportunity to learn and explore more about how knowledge and skills can be learned and used to improve patient care and nursing practice. This paper provides a reflection on my strengths and weaknesses, competencies I acquired, and leadership skills regarding my experience in a hospital setting with my preceptor as we focused on the prevention and management of COVID-19.
Professional Practices
The healthcare system for the past few years since COVID has stricken the globe has experienced significant changes associated with increased cases of substandard care in the hospital setting that has compromised the quality and provision of care. However, nurses have adopted evidence-based practice to improve patient safety and the quality of the provided care. This care practice does not involve nurses alone but patients which has increased the quality of care as I experienced that during Coronavirus patients played a big part while ensuring SOPs, receiving medication, and maintaining self-isolation strategy to prevent the spread of the virus. The progressive application of evidence-based care as a professional practice in the nursing sector has led to effective care providence which subsequently results in better patient care outcomes.
Personal Strengths and Weaknesses
During care provision with my preceptor, the weakness I have realized in myself is sometimes I failed to communicate with the patients which resulted in mild allergic reactions in some of them as I did not know of their prior medical history. Upon realization, I have started working on my weakness and successfully coped with the shortcoming through effective communication with the patients about their health. As I am a hands-on learner, I focused on every minute thing possible to understand how healthcare is provided, the quality of care is maintained, and what are the necessary medical terms and procedures to improve patient outcomes.
Leadership
Through my experience during the practicum, while ensuring the prevention and management of COVID, I believe that I have transformational leadership skills as I am good at conflict resolution, motivation, and decision making. However, the area I put my efforts into for the development of my interpersonal skills was effective communication with teams and on individual terms with the patients.
Inquiry into Current Practices
Health disparities in the healthcare setting are the variances in the health of different members of the population in the society which creates the difference in the provision of healthcare and access to health. The inquiry to current practices includes quality of care, utilization of care, and health insurance coverage.
Additional Resources
Nurses in the healthcare setting should have access to research journals and technology so that they can obtain information from nurse specialists or pharmaceutical representatives. Accessing these resources can increase the provision of quality care as well as enhance the nurses’ knowledge in their respective fields.
New Practice Approaches
In the nursing sector, new practice approaches including community-based healthcare, evidence-based practice, and patient-centered healthcare are being developed to improve the provision of care. Community-based care provides help in the identification of the community needs, patient-centered care provides personalized care to maintain how patients are treated in a certain way, and evidence-based practice involves the provision of healthcare by the use of general expertise, knowledge, and clinical research of a nurse. These approaches are used by nurses in the hospital setting to get a correct treatment formula for emphasizing patient-centered healthcare.
