Clinical Time Log and Journal

Learner Objective *Bloom’s Taxonomy

 

Course Objective

(Walden)

 

AACN Essential**

 

 

Projected Goal

 

Activities Completed

 

Status of completion

 

 1 to3

 

 

 

 To successfully develop and disseminate the final implementation plan for the staff education program on medication safety at the practicum site by the end of week 3

 To evaluate the student’s ability to carry out a disciplined or systematic inquiry to address issues, problems and needs relevant to nursing practice

 Quality and Safety – to “enhance quality and minimize risk of harm to patients and providers through both system effectiveness and individual performance” (AACN, 2021, p. 39)

 To reduce the incidence of medication errors at the practicum site by 50% by implementing a mandatory medication safety education for clinical staff

Made a presentation to the board of directors to obtain project approval

Held a conference call with the preceptor and faculty advisor to communicate the finalized action plan

Identified change champions among the clinical staff and held a meeting to discuss implementation plan

Held a conference call with all clinical staff to explain the current problem, objectives of the education plan, and communicate the finalized action plan

 Completed

Completed

Completed

Completed

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Journal

 

My learning objective for weeks 1 to 3 was to develop and communicate the final implementation plan for the staff education program on medication safety at the practicum site. Towards this end, I held a conference call with the preceptor and faculty advisor to discuss the final implementation plan. The call is also one of the requirements in week 1 under the Walden DNP Project guidelines (Walden University DNP Practicum Manual, 2020). Other milestones achieved in weeks 1 to 3 included the identification of change champions and holding sessions with the change champions and the rest of the clinical staff to communicate the finalized implementation plan and obtain their views and attitudes about the project. The main challenge that I faced in this phase was competing engagements that made it difficult to find a suitable time to meet all the clinical staff at once. Since there were always patients requiring assistance, some of the staff could not attend the meetings as scheduled. However, all the change champions underwent training and one of their key roles will be to track the progress of their team members throughout the project period and to guide them towards embracing and integrating the change in their daily work. I believe that with the change champions, the staff who could not attend the initial briefing due to other engagements can still be brought on board as the education program begins. The second challenge that I faced, though to a minimal extent, was staff resistance. Some of the staff questioned why they were not involved in the original project design and others raised concern around the requirement to report all medication errors. According to Furxhi (2021), employees may resist change because they lack trust in the management, due to poor communication, and because they fear failure. To address mistrust and the fear of failure, we communicated that change efforts would be spearheaded by change champions selected from among the clinical staff. The staff were more comfortable knowing that the change leaders were their colleagues, who understood their daily problems and needs. To minimize resistance resulting from poor communication, it was decided that moving forward, the project team would conduct weekly evaluations to obtain the ideas and opinions of the staff.