Week10

NURS 6541 Practicum Journal Template

Student Name:

E-mail Address:

Practicum Placement Agency's Name:

Preceptor’s Name:

Preceptor’s Telephone:

Preceptor’s E-mail Address:

Pediatric practice involves a broad range of experiences on the part of the practitioner. In a similar manner, virtually every practitioner harbors some concerns that prompt service delivery. The practice, just like other medical undertakings, is influenced by the practitioner’s or family members’ culture. Moreover, the selection of a nursing theory to guide the practice may be essential.

Working as a pediatrician involves some exciting experiences, one of which is encountering the innocence and honesty that is exhibited by children. Notably, the innocence applies to virtually all children below the age of 8, and somewhat renders diagnosis process, among children above 4 years, relatively easy. In a similar manner, the helplessness that the children exhibit say when administering an injection and the absolute dependence and belief in parents is also a source of excitement (Navin, 2017). The other aspect that excites me is ‘growing’ with the children in the form of watching them develop various personalities and become independent. In the context, I am able to predict a child’s personality and live to check whether my guess was correct or not. A remarkable concern in the practice is the diagnosis of infants’ and toddlers’ medical conditions to offer them relief. In this case, the categories of patients hardly talk to explain what they feel, but I have to identify their conditions anyway. A remarkable strength in the practice is the readiness to respond to the many questions that children pose during treatment. Similarly, I happen to be empathetic to children’s suffering, hence move with speed to address the medical conditions that the category of people suffer from. Moreover, I easily convince children to agree to procedures that they, initially, could have been against through the employment of enticing words. The strengths may potentially lead to children’s learning, fast relief, and willful participation in medical processes respectively. Turning to weaknesses, one frailty that I exhibit is excess sympathy to children, which discourages me from conducting medical procedures that seemingly inflict pain. The weakness may hamper the execution of some relevant medical procedures, the effect of which would be inability to solve the prevalent medical challenges.

My definition of family is a group of persons that enjoy strong bonds by virtue of birth or simply living together and who care about the welfare of one another. Family roles, undoubtedly, affect a child’s assessment. In the context, guardians that have strong bonds with children exhibit the willingness to support detailed child assessment regardless of the cost(s) therein. Siblings, on the other hand, may not care much about the details of a child’s assessment. Culture also potentially affects a child’s assessment in pediatric care. On this regard, some cultures may discourage some medical assessments, hence prevent parents from presenting children for check-ups in case they suspect that the practitioner may conduct the assessment. Conversely, the practitioner’s cultural beliefs may consider some medical procedures inappropriate and discourage the medic from such assessments although they could be appropriate based on the presenting symptoms (Berman et al., 2018).

The nursing theory that will guide my practice with pediatric patients is the Callista Roy’s adaptation nursing model. The theory views an individual as a set of interrelated systems that strive to maintain a balance between various stimuli (Fawcett, 2002). In the context, individual aspects of parts collaborate to form a unified being. Just like in systems theory, individuals are considered living systems that interact with their respective environments. Some attributes of the human system include inputs, outputs, and feedback.

Based on the highlighted strengths, weaknesses, and operation theory, one goal would be to enhance children’s experiences during treatment processes through interactive materials and stories. The other objective would be to gather the courage to execute virtually all medical procedures in the realization that the practice is to the benefit of the children. The third objective would be to consider elements in the child’s environment that could be contributing to the condition that the patient is diagnosed with.

Some practicum experiences to relate are listed shortly with a week being dedicated to each one of them. The first one is the examination of patients to assess their general physical condition. The second one will be the collection of medical information from patients, family members, or other medical professionals (Kramer, 2018). The prescription of medications will be the third experience, while the prescription of therapies and/or treatments will be the fourth. During the fifth week, insights and experiences into the administration of intravenous medications will suffice.

Journal Entries

Berman, L., Rangel, S., Goldin, A., Skarda, D., Ottosen, M., Bliss, D. & Tsao, K. (2018). Safety culture among pediatric surgeons: A national survey of attitudes and perceptions of patient safety. Journal of pediatric surgery, 53(3), 381-395.

Fawcett, J. (2002). The nurse theorists: 21st-century updates—Callista Roy. Nursing Science Quarterly, 15(4), 308-310.

Kramer, P. (2018). Frames of reference for pediatric occupational therapy. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

Navin, M. C. (2017, March). The ethics of vaccination nudges in pediatric practice. In HEC forum (Vol. 29, No. 1, pp. 43-57). Springer Netherlands.