Clinical Reflections
My relationship with my preceptor is largely amazing. During the time I have worked with her, we have developed good working relations. In addition to offering me tips on how to further enhance my performance, she has been particularly instrumental towards ensuring that I familiarize myself with various diagnoses and drug actions.
I could say that at present, I am fulfilling my clinical goals. This is more so the case given that over time, I have been able to closely interact with numerous patients, perform intake interviews, and conduct physical examinations. There are, however, many opportunities for further improvement.
Most of my interactions with patients are pleasant and engaging. This is more so the case given that the majority of those I interact with are largely healthy persons who have no debilitating conditions. It should also be noted that staff is in this case friendly and supportive.
Certainly, my preceptor fulfills all my expectations with regard to the qualities and characteristics of an ideal clinical preceptor. In addition to being supportive, she is also approachable, and practical. To illustrate her supportive and practical nature, there was a time I took too much time with a patient during the intake/interview. The patient was in this case overly detail-oriented, and I found myself unable to interrupt her so as to bring the interview back on course. My preceptor encouraged me to concurrently run both the physical examination and a review of the system – effectively speeding up this particular intake process.
There are a number of factors that, from time to time, presented a barrier to my role as NP. One of the more prominent ones is my inability to bring patients back on course once they deviated from the substance of the interview. As long as a person is talking, I find it hard (and rude) to interject even when it is clear that the interview has deviated from its course. This routinely eats into the time of other assigned activities.
Some of my strengths include the ability to make the patient feel at ease and thereby establish good rapport. Time management during interviews, on the other hand, remains one of my greatest weaknesses. I intend to rein in this weakness by practicing appropriate interjection techniques that would not offend a patient when used to get the interview back on course.
