Strategic Planning for Clinical Rotation- Goals Skill Development and Evidence-Based Decision-Making
Clinicals are important learning experiences for nurses. They help them incorporate nursing theories and skills in their coursework and prepare them for real-world patient care scenarios (Boston-Fleischhauer, 2019). My current plan for completing my clinical hours is to attend three to four times a week and ask my preceptor to do it within my scope of practice. During my clinical rotations, I will interact with patients under the supervision of preceptors in healthcare facilities. I will work across all the nursing specialty areas, such as obstetrics, psychiatry nursing, pediatric nursing, and emergency nursing. I will put everything I have learned in nursing theory courses and put them into practice. I will attend multiple 9-hour shifts every week. During the first days of clinical rotations, I will undertake basic nursing duties like patient charting and taking vital records. As I progress through the program, I will manage complex clinical tasks.
Clinical rotations are an important aspect of the nursing program since they allow nursing students to experience the complex healthcare delivery industry (Phillips et al., 2019). This exposure will help me prepare for my future nursing career. During my rotations, I will observe and care for real patients in the clinical environment. It will help me get a more refined view of nursing theory and skills learned in the simulation and skills labs. My main goals for the clinical rotations will include following stipulated protocols and measures when handling confidential patient information, learning how to interact with members of the multidisciplinary healthcare team, patients, and their families, interacting with patients at a holistic level, and implementing empathetic care and finally implementing safe nursing interventions.
The schedule I have selected will give me an idea of what the day-to-day of a professional nurse looks like. It will also ensure that I get plenty of face-to-face interactions with clinical preceptors and fellow medical students. This will help me learn how to communicate in a multidisciplinary team. Multidisciplinary collaboration is important in promoting teamwork and enhancing patient outcomes (Taberna et al., 2020). By the time I am done with my rotations, I will have great communication skills that will help me communicate with my colleagues with patients.
Evidence-based practice involves integrating the latest clinical evidence, clinical expertise, and patient preferences to enhance patient outcomes (Abu-Baker et al., 2021). I will employ evidence-based practice during my clinical rotations. I will obtain evidence from PubMed, Cochrane Library, and CINAHL to help me in clinical decision-making. In addition to this, I will consult with my seniors to ensure they guide me on the best available evidence that I can use to enhance patient outcomes. In conclusion, clinical rotations are important in the nursing curriculum. It helps nursing students to interact with real-life patients and apply lessons and theoretical frameworks they learn from their coursework.
References
Abu-Baker, N. N., AbuAlrub, S., Obeidat, R. F., & Assmairan, K. (2021). Evidence-based practice beliefs and implementations: A cross-sectional study among undergraduate nursing students. BMC Nursing, 20(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-020-00522-x
Boston-Fleischhauer, C. (2019). Confronting clinical rotations. JONA: The Journal of Nursing Administration, 49(1), 6-8. https://doi.org/10.1097/nna.0000000000000699
Phillips, K. F., Mathew, L., Aktan, N., & Sandanapitchai, P. (2019). The effectiveness of shared clinical teaching in nursing. International Journal of Nursing Sciences, 6(2), 211-215. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnss.2019.03.002