Assignment: Practicum: Planning for the Practicum

The practicum experience provides a significant opportunity to cultivate your professional growth and development. What skills, attributes, or categories of knowledge do you most need or want to nurture? How would improving in these areas enable you to be a more effective leader? And how would that allow you to facilitate the translation of evidence into practice?

This course includes a 216-hour practicum as part of the 1,000 clinical hours that are required for the DNP credential. In your practicum experience for this course, you will examine the change process as it relates to the translation of evidence into practice. In addition, throughout your practicum experience you will pay close attention to the role of leadership in such endeavors and reflect on your own development of leadership competencies.

This week you develop a plan for your practicum.

Note: If you have not already done so, formalize the relationship with your practicum mentor.

To prepare:

• Review the information presented in the Learning Resources, and consider what approach you would use (including specific steps of the process) to plan for and implement an aggregate-level change that facilitates the translation of evidence into practice. Begin with the analytical process required to identify the change that needs to be made.*
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• Think about learning objectives that would guide your practicum hours, as well as the activities you will undertake to achieve those objectives. Draft two or three learning objectives that are related to the AACN DNP Essentials, your practice area specialty competencies, and the focus of this course—planning for and implementing a sustainable change related to the translation of evidence into practice, as well as the development of leadership competencies to facilitate this.
• Refer to the Practicum Time Log and Journal document.
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• Develop a time line for your practicum experience. Note: You will submit your time log and a journal entry by the end of Weeks 3, 7, and 11.
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Note: It is important to formulate a big-picture view of this process. In Weeks 2 and 3, you will work with your practicum mentor to examine a change already underway or previously accomplished, and identify an additional aggregate-level change you would like to propose. You are not required to implement this change, but you do need to select an idea that is feasible, based on evidence, and appropriate for your practicum setting.

 

To complete:

Write a 2- to 3-page paper that includes the following:

• An outline or visual representation indicating how you would guide planning for and implementing change related to the translation of evidence into practice for your practicum setting
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• Two or three learning objectives for your practicum hours that are aligned to the AACN Essentials, your specialty area competencies, and the focus of this course (i.e., systems-related issues, translation of evidence into practice, intentional change, and leadership)
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• Key leadership and other activities you will undertake to fulfill your identified learning objectives
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• A proposed time line for accomplishing your practicum hours