Week 2: At a Glance: INTRODUCTION

What do I have to do?	When do I have to do it?
Review your Learning Resources.	Days 1–7
Reminder: Faculty and Preceptor Contact	Complete your introduction email by Day 7.
Assignment 1: Clinical Hour and Patient Logs	Record your clinical hours and patient encounters in Meditrek.
Assignment 2: Practicum Experience Plan (PEP)	Submit Assignment 2 by Day 7.

When setting sharp, clearly defined goals and objectives, you focus on what you wish to accomplish and how and when you will get there. Based on your assessment of your strengths and opportunities related to psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner (PMHNP) clinical skills, you can develop goals and objectives for your clinical practicum that can guide your activities. What are some steps you can take on the way to a larger goal? How might you gain confidence in a clinical skill or seek out more opportunities to practice? What external activities might boost your professionalism or enhance your skill set? As you settle in at your practicum site, keep these questions in mind.

This week, you continue engaging with patients at your practicum site, recording your time and experiences in your Clinical Hour and Patient Logs. You will also develop a Practicum Experience Plan (PEP) made up of goals and objectives designed to formally identify specific categories of clinical skills you wish to achieve during your practicum experience.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Students will:

Describe clinical hours and patient encounters
Develop a Practicum Experience Plan
Create a timeline of practicum activities based on your practicum requirements

Week 2: Assignment 1

Due Sunday by 10:59pm
Points 10
Submitting a text entry box or a file upload

Clinical Hour Log

For this course, all practicum activity hours are logged within the Meditrek system. Hours completed must be logged in Meditrek within 48 hours of completion in order to earn the points associated with this assignment. You may only log hours with Preceptors that are approved in Meditrek.

Students 2018 must complete a minimum of 160 hours of supervised clinical experience. You may not complete your hours sooner than 8 weeks. You will enter your approved preceptor and clinical faculty as part of each time and patient encounter you log.

Your clinical hour log must include the following:

Dates
Course
Clinical Faculty
Approved Preceptor
Total Time (for the day)

Resources

Be sure to review the Learning Resources before completing this activity.
Click the weekly resources link to access the resources.

Patient Log

Throughout this course, you will also keep a log of patient encounters using Meditrek. You must record at least 80 patients by the end of this practicum. Note: 80 encounters in 160 hours – Psychotherapy must include individuals, groups, and families – No age group minimum, but quality experiences are expected.

The patient log must include the following:

Date
Course
Clinical Faculty
Preceptor
Patient Number
Client Information
Visit Information
Practice Management
Diagnosis
Treatment Plan and Notes: You must include a brief summary/synopsis of the patient visit. This does not need to be a SOAP note; however, the note needs to be sufficient to remember your patient encounter.

By Day 7 of Week 2

Record your clinical hours and patient encounters in Meditrek and upload a PDF of your Meditrek hours and encounters.

Rubric

PRAC_6675_Week2_Assignment1_Rubric

Criteria	Ratings	Pts
This criterion is linked to a Learning Outcome Part 1: Time logs and patient logs are completed within 48 hours of completing clinical time.	5 pts Excellent Time logs are completed within 48 hours of completing clinical time. Patient logs are completed within 48 hours of completing clinical time. 0 pts Poor Time logs are completed more than 48 hours after completing clinical time. Patient logs are completed more than 48 hours after completing clinical time.	5 pts
This criterion is linked to a Learning Outcome Part 2: Patient logs meet the minimum documentation requirements. Each entry includes Date, Course, Clinical Instructor, Preceptor, Patient number, Client information, Visit information, Practice management, Diagnosis, Procedures (if applicable), Treatment plan and notes, Notes section (Students must include a brief summary/synopsis of the patient visit—this must include enough information to understand how the patient presnted and the student intervention. Do NOT include EMR SOAP notes. LOGS MUST BE SUBMITTED WITHIN 48 HOURS TO BE ELIGIBLE FOR ANY POINTS	5 pts Excellent Patient logs include all of the required documentation elements. 0 pts Poor Patient logs do NOT include all of the required documentation elements. There are some elements missing or the logs are incomplete. *Patient logs were submitted more than 48 hours after completion of the clinical time.	5 pts

Total Points: 10

Week 2: Assignment 2

Due Sunday by 10:59pm
Points 100
Submitting a text entry box or a file upload
Attempts 0
Allowed Attempts 2

Practicum Experience Plan (PEP)

As you establish your goals and objectives for this course, you are committing to an organized plan that will frame your practicum experience in a clinical setting, including planned activities, assessment, and achievement of defined outcomes. In particular, they must address the categories of clinical reasoning, quality in your clinical specialty, and interpersonal collaborative practice.

For this Assignment, you will consider the areas you aim to focus on to gain practical experience as an advanced practice nurse. Then, you will develop a Practicum Experience Plan (PEP) containing the objectives you will fulfill in order to achieve your aims. For this practicum experience, be sure to develop goals and objectives that allow you to synthesize knowledge and skills related to assessment, diagnosis, and treatment planning.

Resources

Be sure to review the Learning Resources before completing this activity.
Click the weekly resources link to access the resources.

To Prepare

Review your Clinical Skills Self-Assessment Form you submitted last week and think about areas for which you would like to gain application-level experience and/or continued growth as an advanced practice nurse. How can your experiences in the practicum help you achieve these aims? 
Review the information related to developing objectives provided in this week’s Learning Resources. Your practicum learning objectives that you want to achieve during your practicum experience must be:
- Specific 
- Measurable 
- Attainable 
- Results-focused 
- Time-bound
- Reflective of the higher-order domains of Bloom’s taxonomy (i.e., application level and above)

Note: Please make sure your objectives are individualized and outlined in your Practicum Experience Plan (PEP). While you may add previous objectives to continue to work toward. You must have 3 new objectives for each class, each quarter.

Discuss your professional aims and your proposed practicum objectives with your Preceptor to ascertain if the necessary resources are available at your practicum site.
Select one nursing theory and one counseling/psychotherapy theory to best guide your clinical practice. Explain why you selected these theories. Support your approach with evidence-based literature.
Create a timeline of practicum activities that demonstrates how you plan to meet these goals and objectives based on your practicum requirements.

The Assignment

Record the required information in each area of the Practicum Experience Plan template, including 3–4 measurable practicum learning objectives you will use to facilitate your learning during the practicum experience.

By Day 7 of Week 2

Submit your Practicum Experience Plan for assessment and Faculty approval. 

When your Instructor has approved your plan, forward the signed PEP to your Preceptor and retain a copy for your records.

submission information

Before submitting your final assignment, you can check your draft for authenticity. To check your draft, access the Turnitin Drafts from the Start Here area.

To submit your completed assignment, save your Assignment as WK2Assgn2_LastName_Firstinitial
Then, click on Start Assignment near the top of the page.
Next, click on Upload File and select Submit Assignment for review.

Rubric

PRAC_6675_Week2_Assignment2_Rubric

Criteria	Ratings	Pts
This criterion is linked to a Learning Outcome Record the required information in each area of the Practicum Experience Plan (PEP): Part 1: Quarter/Term/Year and Contact Information: ᵒ Identify Quarter/Term/Year ᵒ Identify Student Contact Information: Name, Street Address, City, State, Zip, Home Phone, Work Phone, Cell Phone, Fax, and Walden University Email ᵒ Identify Preceptor Contact Information: Name, Organization, Street Address, City, State, Zip, Work Phone, Cell Phone, Fax, and Professional/Work Email	5 to >4.0 pts Excellent The response accurately and clearly identifies the Quarter/Term/Year, all Student Contact Information, and all Preceptor Contact Information. 4 to >3.5 pts Good The response identifies the Quarter/Term/Year, and at least 90% of Student Contact Information and Preceptor Contact Information. 3.5 to >3.0 pts Fair The response identifies the Quarter/Term/Year, and at least 80% of Student Contact Information and Preceptor Contact Information. 3 to >0 pts Poor The response is inaccurate, incomplete, or is missing identification of the Quarter/Term/Year and/or identifies less than 80% of Student Contact Information and Preceptor Contact Information.	5 pts
This criterion is linked to a Learning Outcome Part 2: Individualized Practicum Learning Objectives: Explain three Individualized Practicum Learning Objectives that address your self-assessment of the skills found in the Clinical Skills Self-Assessment, are SMART (i.e., Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Results-focused, Time-focused), and meet the requirements for this course. Each Practicum Learning Objective must describe planned activities, mode of assessment, and PRAC course outcome(s) addressed for the skills you would like to improve from your self-assessment. Select one nursing theory and one counseling/psychotherapy theory to best guide your clinical practice, explaining these 2 chosen theories with supporting evidenced-based literature.	75 to >68.0 pts Excellent The response clearly, accurately, and thoroughly explains three (3) Individualized Practicum Learning Objectives that address the self-assessment of the skills found in the Clinical Skills Self-Assessment, are SMART (i.e., Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Results-focused, Time-focused), and meet the requirements for this course. … For each Learning Objective, the response clearly, accurately, and thoroughly describes planned activities, mode of assessment, and PRAC course outcome(s) addressed for the skills to be improved from the self-assessment. … Clearly, accurately, and thoroughly explains 2 chosen theories (1 nursing and 1 counseling/psychotherapy) to guide clinical practice with supporting literature. 68 to >59.0 pts Good The response accurately explains three (3) Individualized Practicum Learning Objectives that address the self-assessment of the skills found in the Clinical Skills Self-Assessment, are SMART (i.e., Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Results-focused, Time-focused), and meet the requirements for this course. … For each Learning Objective, the response accurately describes planned activities, mode of assessment, and PRAC course outcome(s) addressed for the skills to be improved from the self-assessment. … Response accurately but briefly explains 2 chosen theories (1 nursing and 1 counseling/psychotherapy) to guide clinical practice with supporting literature. 59 to >52.0 pts Fair The response somewhat vaguely explains three (3) Individualized Practicum Learning Objectives that address the self-assessment of the skills found in the Clinical Skills Self-Assessment, are SMART (i.e., Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Results-focused, Time-focused), and meet the requirements for this course. … For each Learning Objective, the response somewhat vaguely describes planned activities, mode of assessment, and PRAC course outcome(s) addressed for the skills to be improved from the self-assessment. … Response vaguely explains 2 chosen theories (1 nursing and 1 counseling/psychotherapy) or one theory is missing in discussion to guide clinical practice with supporting literature. 52 to >0 pts Poor The response inaccurately or incompletely explains three (3) Individualized Practicum Learning Objectives that address the self-assessment of the skills found in the Clinical Skills Self-Assessment, are SMART (i.e., Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Results-focused, Time-focused), and meet the requirements for this course. … For each Learning Objective, the response has a vague, inaccurate, and/or incomplete or missing description of planned activities, mode of assessment, and PRAC course outcome(s) addressed for the skills to be improved from the self-assessment. … Response inaccurately or incompletely explains 2 chosen theories (1 nursing and 1 counseling/psychotherapy) or no theories are discussed to guide clinical practice with supporting literature.	75 pts
This criterion is linked to a Learning Outcome Part 3: Projected Timeline/Schedule: Describe your practicum timeline/schedule: ᵒ Number of weekly hours projected to work on your practicum ᵒ Number of weekly hours for professional development	15 to >13.0 pts Excellent The response includes a clear, accurate, and thorough description of the practicum timeline/schedule, including number of weekly hours projected to work on the practicum and number of weekly hours for professional development. 13 to >11.0 pts Good The response includes an accurate description of the practicum timeline/schedule, including number of weekly hours projected to work on the practicum and number of weekly hours for professional development. 11 to >10.0 pts Fair The response includes a somewhat vague description of the practicum timeline/schedule, and may be missing details about the number of weekly hours projected to work on the practicum or number of weekly hours for professional development. 10 to >0 pts Poor The response includes a vague, incomplete, and/or inaccurate or missing description of the practicum timeline/schedule, including number of weekly hours projected to work on the practicum or number of weekly hours for professional development.	15 pts
This criterion is linked to a Learning Outcome Written Expression and Formatting—English Writing Standards: Assignment follows correct grammar, mechanics, and proper punctuation.	5 to >4.0 pts Excellent Uses correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation with no errors. 4 to >3.5 pts Good Contains 1-2 grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors. 3.5 to >3.0 pts Fair Contains 3-4 grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors. 3 to >0 pts Poor Contains ≥ 5 grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors that interfere with the reader’s understanding.	5 pts

Total Points: 100

Reminder: Faculty and Preceptor Contact

This week, you must coordinate an introductory email with your Clinical Faculty and Preceptor. The purpose of this communication is for orientation and onboarding, goals discussion, and questions.

By Day 7

Complete your orientation email. Attach your clinical schedule calendar developed in Week 1 to your email. Include a summary of your goals and objectives for this practicum experience.

Learning Resources

Required Readings

Carlat, D. J. (2024). The psychiatric interview (5th ed.). Wolters Kluwer.
- For review as needed:
  - “Section I. General Principles of Effective Interviewing” (Chapters 1–14)
  - “Section II. The Psychiatric History” (Chapters 15–19)
  - Chapter 20, “How to Memorize the DSM-5-TR Criteria”
  - Chapter 35, “Writing Up the Results of the Interview”
  - Appendix A, pp. 294-300
  - Appendix b, pp. 301-316
Goldin, D. S. (2023). Fast facts for psychopharmacology for nurse practitioners. Springer Publishing
- Chapter 1, “The Psychiatric Interview” pp. 2-17
- Chapter 2, “The Prescriber’s Role” pp. 18-27
Walden University Academic Skills Center. (2017). Setting S.M.A.R.T. goals . https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/ld.php?content_id=51901492
.Document:Practicum Experience Plan Template (Word document)

Practicum_Experience_Plan(6)Download

what’s coming up in week 3?

Next week, you will continue to track your clinical hours and patient encounters in Meditrek.

Looking Ahead: Grand Rounds

In Weeks 4, 7, and 9 of the course, you will participate in clinical discussions called grand rounds. In one of these 3 weeks, you will be a presenter as well as help facilitate the online discussion; in the others, you will be an active discussion participant. When it is your week to present, you will create a short didactic (teaching) video presenting a real (but de-identified) complex patient case from your practicum experience.

You should have received an assignment from your Instructor letting you know which week of the course you are assigned to present. No later than the week before you are to present, email your Clinical Instructor a brief summary (no more than a paragraph) of the patient case you wish to present for approval.

For the week in which you present, part of your assignment will be to create a SOAP note on a patient and use it as the basis for your presentation. All SOAP notes must be signed and each page must be initialed by your preceptor. Be sure you plan ahead to get the needed signature before the due date.

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