Practicum Experience Journal Week 1-3

1

PICO QUESTION 3

Sample Practicum Experience Journal

The practicum site is swiftly embracing the new technology for glycemic glucose control as in the preceptor who is the primary educator on this project. The glucometer project is resumption from the last quarter practicum hours in which the contracts for product purchase and implementation negation were the primary activities. The first few classes that have occurred with the nursing super-users have been relatively successful but are significantly overshadowed by the current status of the nursing workforce. The practicum organization is currently short nearly 100 nurses from the 500 nurses normally employed in the acute care unit. To address this, nurses are being forced into mandatory overtime shifts every week in addition to the required training for this new glycemic software. When consulting leadership and reviewing the turnover numbers and factors within the organization, it is apparent that the practicum site is not experiencing a trend that is not occurring at the national level. The current nursing turnover rate in the United States is 16.5% (Mazurenko, Gupta and Shan, 2015). The practicum site turnover rates at under 15% at last count, however, I am working with leadership and Human Resources to provide a more accurate, updated number from June of 2015.

Further, Hill et al. (2015), reported some key innovative towards preserving current staffing resources at the system level to elevate some of the hardship related to the nursing shortage. Efficiency tools such as daily huddles and down-staffing in four hours increment, a centralizing monitoring system (Teletracking) to ascertain the patient census and staff accordingly are currently in use by the organization. Much of the last three weeks have been spent collecting information from staff after their scheduled training session for glucometer project. It is apparent that these nurses are tired, are scared about the future state and are clearly missing a confiding mentor to unburden themselves and offer suggestions for improvement.