Reflective Journal Entry- Week 16

1. Share what you had expected to learn about the topic before beginning the unit.

Before beginning this unit and looking at the module title I expected to learn more about the accreditation standards that hospitals and other facilities are held to in order to be considered safe for their patients and their employees. 

2. What you actually learned from the unit.

After completing this unit, I feel that I have learned what I expected to learn. I was able to learn more about NPSG's and how these are set and the intervention plans that are set forth in order to bring these goals to light. I also learned about JCAHO and the importance they play in the accreditation of these facilities. 

3. Discuss your feelings/experiences from the activities (individual and team)?

I felt that the activities of this week were beneficial because they educated me on why certain things need to be done in facilities, though as a nurse it seems repetitive. These things have to be done in order to be accredited. Also, if these goals are not being met by the employees they need to keep being addressed in order to improve the care and safety that the patients receive. 

4. How you will utilize the information learned in your nursing practice.

I will utilize the information learned from this unit by better understanding the accreditation standards that are in place and knowing the ways that I as a nurse can make a difference in these things as an employee. In the future this will also help me to be a better manager because I will already understand the importance of this information. 

5. You personal feelings about the material covered.

I feel that this information is important because the accreditation standards are ultimately what keeps a hospital or healthcare facility going. And without these standards our healthcare system would not be capable of providing appropriate care. This is important information for all nurses and healthcare workers to know. 

Reflective Journal Entry- Week 15

1. Share what you had expected to learn about the topic before beginning the unit.

This week I expected to learn about patient safety measures and ways that as a nurse I would be able to better these standards and apply them into my daily practice. I also expected to learn about the different patient safety measures that may need improvement based of current research. 

2. What you actually learned from the unit.

After completing the assignments and discussions for this week I feel that I learned exactly what I expected to learn plus more. I learned about patient safety measures, what safety measure need to be improved based off of current research and I was able to learn more about other aspects of patient safety such as the psychological safety that patients deserve but is often looked over. 

3. Discuss your feelings/experiences from the activities (individual and team)?

I enjoyed the activities that were provided this week. I think the discussion was beneficial because I was able to better learn what other nurses would do in the same situation which gave me ideas of better or different ways to think of a situation. I also enjoyed the literature search because it was something we have not done a lot this semester and was beneficial because I was able to research something that I enjoyed and applied to my current job. Last, as usual, I enjoyed the case study because it presented a different side of patient safety and care that I had not been exposed to and gave the time for me to think about the different steps I might have taken in that situation. 

4. How you will utilize the information learned in your nursing practice.

I will utilize the information that I have learned to week by remembering the different aspects of patient safety that I need to work on so that the patients that I care for on a daily basis will get better care. This will also allow me to give better care to the patients families. The case studies that were done this week have also given me the chance to go through a type of situation I might have to deal with so I already know how I want to react without the pressure of being in a stressful moment. 

5. You personal feelings about the material covered.

I feel that this information that was covered is very important to nursing practice and care. In my opinion it is one of the most important aspects of what we do as nurses. However, I got opened up to a lot of new aspects of patient safety that I did not know about before, specifically from the case study, that helped me to better my nursing practice. 

Reflective Journal Entry- Week 13

1. Share what you had expected to learn about the topic before beginning the unit.

After looking at the title of this unit I expected to learn about how to make our patients feel safe while caring for them in an unsettling environment. I also expected to learn about how certain steps to take in order to create an environment of safety with the families of patients while they are worried about their family member.

2. What you actually learned from the unit.

I learned exactly what I expected to learn from this unit. I was able to learn the best ways to create a safe environment for patients by being a patient advocate and educating myself as a nurse to always be up to date on the most current practices in healthcare. Being educated and being willing to be a patient advocate will give my patients the safety that they deserve while I am caring for them. 

3. Discuss your feelings/experiences from the activities (individual and team)?

I enjoyed the activities that we did this week in the module. I have been enjoying the case study's that we have been doing the past couple of weeks because it gives me the opportunity to apply the things that I have learned into things that I may face in my career. I also enjoyed thinking through how to gain information when it is not directly given to you. 

4. How you will utilize the information learned in your nursing practice.

I can utilize the information that I learned this week on a daily basis because it is important to create a culture of safety for every single patient you care for on a daily basis. I can use the information that I learned by making sure that I am always asking questions so that I am knowledgeable about my patients situation and so I can educate the patient as well. 

5. You personal feelings about the material covered.

I enjoyed the information that we talked about this week because I feel like it is very applicable to every nurse no matter what stage of your career that you are at. I also feel like this is one aspect of nursing care that makes a nurse great compared to average in the eyes of the patient. The safer the patient feels the faster they recover and the more likely they will trust the healthcare workers that are caring for them. 

Reflective Journal- Week 12

1. Share what you had expected to learn about the topic before beginning the unit.

Before beginning the assignments for this unit I expected to learn more about common errors and mistakes that occur in the healthcare field. I also expected to learn about ways that these errors and mistakes can be prevented or worked on in order to improve the healthcare field. 

2. What you actually learned from the unit.

After completing all of the assignments for this unit I feel that I learned exactly what I expected to learn at the beginning of the unit. I learned about different errors that occur in the healthcare field and the steps that are taken in order handle these errors and prevent these errors from occurring again. 

3. Discuss your feelings/experiences from the activities (individual and team)?

I feel that all of the activities for this week were relevant to the topic of the unit. It also helped me to can even further education and knowledge on the topic because we worked with the same case study throughout the majority of the assignments. I liked being able to continue to learn more about the case study and how to prevent and improve those methods that were missed by those healthcare workers. 

4. How you will utilize the information learned in your nursing practice.

I will utilize this information by being more aware of those common errors and near misses. I will also use the information that I have learned to motivate myself to continue with evidence based practice and keep up to date with research, policies and procedures of the facilities that I work at. 

5. You personal feelings about the material covered.

I feel that the information that was covered this week was extremely important because it is a huge topic within healthcare and is something that is always needing improving. I feel like this topic could be continued for more units because I feel like there is so much to learn. 

Reflective Journal Entry- Week 11

1. Share what you had expected to learn about the topic before beginning the unit.

This week I expected to learn more about how to create a culture of safety for the patients I am caring for currently, as well as, how to create this culture as a manger of a hospital unit.

2. What you actually learned from the unit.

After completing this unit I better learned how to create a culture of safety and what that entails. I learned that there are multiple ways to accomplish this and that this will better the quality of care that each patient receives during their stay at the hospital. 

3. Discuss your feelings/experiences from the activities (individual and team)?

I enjoyed the activities this week, especially the case study because it was good to see this type of safety issue be realized in a real life situation. This was a good learning exercise for me to better learn how these issues could be solved and the best way to go about solving them. I also enjoyed the discussion because this is a common thing that happens in the workplace where there are not enough workers for patients due to nurses being sick. I liked coming up with ideas on my own and reading the opinions of my teammates. This is something that could be easily fixed as long as there are certain policies and procedures in place. 

4. How you will utilize the information learned in your nursing practice.

I will utilize this information by making sure that I always have patient centered care and am using teamwork in order to prevent unsafe things from happening to my patients. I feel like these two components are most important for me to implement into my nursing practice for me to provide a culture of safety for my patients that I currently care for. 

5. You personal feelings about the material covered.

I really enjoyed the material that was covered this week. I think the real life case study really helped me to better grasp the concepts that we needed to learn and helped me to realize how I can apply things into my nursing practice. Creating a culture of safety for our patients is really important so that the patients can focus on recovering and not worry about being safe during their hospital stay. 

Reflective Journal Entry- Week 10

1. Share what you had expected to learn about the topic before beginning the unit.

This week I expected to learn more about informatics and how this applies to the healthcare system. I expected to learn more about how technology can improve nursing care and can ultimately provide greater quality of care and safety for our patients. 

2. What you actually learned from the unit.

I feel like after completing all of the assignments and discussions from this week I learned what I had expected to learn and how to go about solving problems if the technology does not line up or if others are not willing to use this new technology.

3. Discuss your feelings/experiences from the activities (individual and team)?

I really enjoyed the activities from this week. I liked reading other individuals responses to the discussion and how they would solve that situation. I enjoyed this discussion because that type of stuff happens daily in the hospitals where nurses and doctors are not on the same page but need to be. Learning from others will help me when I am put in a situation like this in the future. I also liked evaluating the fact that EMR's are not free of errors. I think it is a common misconception that this is the case, but it was eye opening while I was researching this topic, the different errors that can occur. This made me realize that I still need to be careful using EMR even though I feel like I am covered. 

4. How you will utilize the information learned in your nursing practice.

I will use this information by applying the discussion and case studies into my nursing practice. When these types of situations come up I will better be able to solve these issues because I have already taken the time to think and research how to improve these problems. 

5. You personal feelings about the material covered.

I feel like the information covered this week was very beneficial because it allowed me to learn more about informatics and apply case studies into my daily nursing practice. I feel like the information was relevant to the changes that are being made currently in healthcare. I feel like these case studies would be a great tool to provide to nurses who have been in the field for a longer period of time so that they can also learn the information of how to deal with these situations like I did this week. 

Case Study- Week 10

A newly hired registered Nurse (RN) is assigned to work at the telehealth work center.  The RN is monitoring the in coming data from home-bound (based) patients from arount the county, checking to see if there are any situations which require nursing interventions and taking the appropriate actions. One (1) patient is a type II diabetic. He reports his fasting blood sugar level of 54. Another patient who has congestive heart failure (CHF) and regularly reports in on daily basis does not send in any information (data).

• What is the best course of action for the RN to take regarding the diabetic patient?
• As the nurse I would call the patient and talk to him as soon as possible. First, I would instruct him to not take his regular diabetes medications or insulin. I would tell him to eat something with sugar such as milk and graham crackers if available because this increases blood glucose over an extended period of time. If this is not available he should drink juice, eat jelly, or take a glucose tab to get a spike in blood glucose. Last, I would instruct the patient to call somebody or have somebody that lives with him sit with him until his blood glucose rises, is within normal range, and is stable. I would instruct the patient to check his blood glucose levels every fifteen minutes until they are stable in order to gage if he needs more sugar or not. 
• How should the RN proceed regarding the lack of information from the CHF patient?
• As the nurse I am worried about this patient due to his regular reports every day. At this point I would try to get a hold of the patient by calling their house or cell phone. If I did not get a response I would call his family members or emergency contact to see if they have heard from him and could go check on him. I would also call his primary care provider, or the agency that provides home health for this patient to have them contact this patient as well.