Taking my capstone practicum at Vitas Hospice in Florida afforded me an opportunity to acquire hands-on learning and apply my skills. The hospital’s reputation and its provision of excellent healthcare to terminally ill patients (Fernandez, 2012) presented me with an opportunity to grow in my nursing career. During my practicum, I worked in the capacity of a team manager, managing an interdisciplinary team of nurses to ensure collaboration and smooth working with the terminally-ill patients’ families to prevent the patients’ symptoms and ease their pain as much as possible (Roberta et al., 2013). I would like to become an effective nursing team manager to optimize patients’ health outcomes, so my experience at Vitas Hospice, where I would like to go back and work as a team manager, will go a long way in enhancing my nursing leadership skills.
Preceptor Selection Rationale
Realizing the importance of a preceptor in a nurse’s development, particularly my nurse leader interest, I chose a nurse leader who was ready to work with and mentor me as his subordinate (Saleem et al., 2013).To this end, my preceptor was Mr. Daniel White, a passionate, experienced team manager who was ready to mentor me towards realizations of my nursing management aspirations (Saleem et al., 2013).
Capstone Practicum Experience Goals
As a nurse leader working with terminally ill patients, my goals will include prioritizing the optimal management of the patients’ symptoms to reduce pain as much as possibly; adopting a high level of organization to prevent medical errors; and delegating certain duties to other nursing staff to achieve the best healthcare outcomes (Harris and Roussel, 2010). To achieve these goals, I purpose to implement evidence-based practices and apply critical thinking and clinical reasoning when making medical decision for optimal pain management for the patients (Anne et al., 2013). Critical thinking is central to making the right, patient-centered medical judgments (Anne et al., 2013).
Conclusion
My Capstone practicum experience at Vitas Hospice gave me an opportunity to learn and develop my nursing leadership skills. In my practice, I will prioritize my patients’ health outcomes, be organized and collaborate with other nursing staff to bolster patients’ healthcare results.
References
Anne, M. B., Ann, R., Jens, P. G., & Lars, W. (2013). Factors Associated with Evidence-
Based Practice among Registered Nurses in Sweden: a National Cross-sectional Study. BMC Health Services Resource, 13: 165.
Fernandez, R., Braun, K., Ozawa, J., Compton, M., Guzman, C., & Somogy-Zalud, E. (2012). Home –base Palliative Care Services for Underserved Populations. Journal of Palliative Medicine, 13(4): 413-419.
Harris, J. L., & Roussel, L. (2010). Initiating and Sustaining the Clinical Nurse Leader Role: A Practical Guide. Sudbury, Mass: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
Roberta, C., Beuter, M., Castro R., & Maria, M. (2013). Pain and the Dying Process: Nurses’ Perspectives Using the Treative and Sensible Method. Online Brazilian Journal of Nursing, 12(1): 1.
Saleem, T. Z., Higginson, I. J., Chaudhuri, K. R., Martin, A., Burman, R., & Leigh, P. N. (2013). Journal of Palliative Medicine, 27(8): 722-731.
