Capstone Reflection - Weebly



Capstone ReflectionRachel LoPortoDixie State UniversitySenior CapstoneNURS 4600Kathleen LacosteAugust 01, 2015Capstone ReflectionThe Dixie State University Senior Capstone course has promoted leadership by allowing students to create their own learning experience to culminate the Bachelor’s degree program. Through creating my own project, I also learned integrity, modesty, collaboration, management, and ingenuity. Also, the program encouraged me to create a project that I hope will be beneficial to my facility for years to come. I believe that the Capstone course is truly necessary to give students the chance to prove what they have been taught through the Bachelor’s in Nursing program at Dixie State. Capstone ActivitiesMy capstone project was created with the intent of educating inpatient unit nurses on wound care protocol and wound clinic consultation. I had found in my experience that unit nurses were simply unfamiliar with wound care and did not feel confident performing wound care and requesting a consult in general. I worked with experts in wound care at my facility to create a simple algorithm that would assist nurses in assessing wounds and performing interventions as appropriate. Along with the wound clinic consult algorithm (see Appendix A), I also created a PowerPoint that included basic wound education, assessment strategies, the RN scope of practice per the facility and state, and interventions, that accompanied my algorithm when sent to unit educators and management. The capstone online portfolio was also a useful activity for the Bachelor’s program. Students were asked to create a professional website that included resumes, nurse philosophy, awards and recognition, Bachelor’s level assignments, and the Capstone project to serve as an interactive portfolio for nurses applying to graduate school or even a new job. I spent several hours on my portfolio ensuring professionalism and accuracy. I think the portfolio presents a new age format to nursing portfolios that can really add to a nurse’s personal presentation. Other activities in the Capstone course included assessment of learning outcomes and assignments that led to achievement of these objectives. These assignments had students reflect on past assignment in the Bachelor’s program that have culminated their learning experiences throughout the program.Relationship to BSNThe Capstone course is definitely an asset to the Dixie State’s Bachelor’s in Nursing program. It shows students how past courses and assignments have helped them grow into a professional nurse capable of leadership roles. The Dixie State Bachelor’s in Nursing degree learning objectives are as follows: 1) incorporate leadership & accountability in the delivery of safe, quality care in diverse health settings, 2) integrate reliable evidence from multiple perspectives to inform practice & make reasonable clinical judgments, 3) effectively uses nursing informatics & communication systems to support safe nursing practice in diverse healthcare settings, 4) develop a basic knowledge of policy, finance, & trends in regulatory environments in relation to healthcare, 5) communicate, collaborate, & negotiate as a member and leader within interdisciplinary health care teams to improve patient health outcomes, 6) manage the direct & indirect care of individuals, families, groups, communities, & populations to promote, maintain, & restore health, and 7) demonstrate professional standards of moral, ethical, & legal conduct in the care of persons, families, groups, communities, and populations.I was able to show leadership and accountability through my relationship-based care project I completed where I utilized levels of competencies and education to instruct staff nurses on wound care products used on the unit. I believe this project taught me the value of competence and confidence in providing genuine patient-centered care. I learned about evidence-based practice through creating a PICOT questions and performing a literature review on palliative care and anxiety. I believe research helped me to see the importance of scholarly evidence-based practice and how it can be applied to nursing interventions, not just medical problems. Nursing informatics was an important area in the Bachelor’s program, because it is so often used in research. The assignment of creating an annotated bibliography helped support technology’s ease of use in research. Dixie State also encouraged the importance of health care policy through one of its Bachelor level courses in which the final exam included short essay answers to difficult health care policy questions. I believe this exam helped extract the knowledge and opinion I gained on the subject. I showed collaboration and patient outcome correlation by participating in clinical activities and discussions with peers about the large effect nurses have on the area. I was able to get involved in community health by volunteering in my community and creating a community-needed educational project about the risk of stroke during the Bachelor’s program. Last, I was able to show professional standards of care through the professional nursing roles course that Dixie State offered. There were several assignments through the course that reinforced this objective and how it applied to my current position as a new nurse in the healthcare field.The Capstone course allowed me to revisit these experiences and compile them into these seven categories to show myself and my instructors how I have progressed as a Baccalaureate level nurse.ReflectionsI originally did not see the need for a capstone course for a Bachelor degree in nursing. I was under the impression capstones were for higher level degrees, like master’s programs. However, I have felt a lot of personal growth just through this course alone. I feel that it allowed me to see how all of the activities and courses required through the Bachelor’s program have helped me develop into a professional nurse capable of leadership. I think this course was a great way to complete a Bachelor’s degree in Nursing. My only concern, which may be a reflection on the program in general rather than the Capstone course, is that some of the activities would have been useful while I was earning my Associate degree at Dixie State. I feel more competent and empowered now that I have completed this program versus when I completed the Associate degree program. However, I now have experience under my belt as well. All in all, this Capstone course has prepared me to continue my education in pursuit of either a Master’s or Doctorate level degree in the future.Appendix AWound Clinic Consult Algorithm. This figure shows a yes/no format for wound care and consultation per facility protocol.Per patient report, do they have a wound that has been present and unchanged for more than 1 month?NOYESPer required RN assessment, assess skin and wounds every shiftRemove previous dressing, if in place, for an accurate assessmentDefinition: ACUTE WOUND(Ex. any traumatic injury, surgical wound, cellulitis + open wound, etc.)Definition: CHRONIC WOUND(Ex. pressure ulcer, lymphedema + open wound, venous/arterial ulcer, etc.)Does the wound show S/S of infection (erythema, swelling, warmth, or pain)?YESYESHas an open wound developed even after interventions have been implemented?Has the wound remained unchanged or worsened for several days, has uncontrolled drainage, or develops s/s of infection?Does not require wound clinic consultReassess wound every shiftApply PUP dressing such as Tegaderm Foam Adhesive or Allyven Life borderInitiate preventative measures such as repositioning, TAPS, bed pump, skin IQ per MD orderNONotify MD for wound clinic consultReassess the wound every shiftPlace temporary dressing such as Tegaderm Foam Adhesive or Allyven Life borderInitiate preventative measures such as repositioning, TAPS, bed pump, skin IQ per MD orderNotify SW/MD if outpatient wound care neededDoes not require wound clinic consultReassess wound every shiftClean wound and change dressing as needed using dressing appropriate for drainage controlNOYESNOWith open areas, slough (white/yellow), eschar (necrotic, black), exposed muscle, bone?YESYESDoes the wound have non-blanchable redness unrelieved by removal of pressure x 30 min. (AKA Stage 1 pressure ulcer)?NODoes the current dressing contain wound drainage and offer adequate protection? ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download