Practicum Experience
Over the course of my study, the practicum experience has been the most challenging one yet. Despite the exposure to real-life work and application of the various school material in the said environment, this experience has had its ups and downs. However, all of these shifts have been learning situations that have facilitated the accumulation of knowledge, experience as well as self-improvement to take place. Accordingly, during the practicum, I have witnessed the benefits, challenges, and the role of leadership in the changing circumstances of the workplace.
During my everyday observation of the institution, it has become increasingly clear that leadership plays a vital role in the translation of evidence into practice. Accordingly, honing my management skill has morphed into an urgent necessity. It is the only way I will translate anything I have learned into practice. I foresee the importance of understanding the institution’s culture and attitudes towards leadership and change. The only way I can utilize any research there is through carefully navigating these hurdles and cultivating relationships between the general research utilization, beliefs and attitudes and the respective roles (Squires et al., 2011). These are integral components of the culture at the organization. Furthermore, I need to acquire a few extra traits to accomplish my goal. I have to put increased value on research, benchmarking evidence-based care, supporting changes in traditional practice, give out feedback, and to work on my communication skills. Therefore, I foresee that working ion these areas gives me a better chance of successfully translating the evidence into practice.
The practicum environment was running fairly smoothly. However, I noticed one traditional practice in nursing that was still being utilized. Several hospitals still perform the instillation of 5 to 10 ML of normal saline before endotracheal suction is done (Rauen et al., 2008). This practice is a common component of managing artificial airways although there is virtually no evidence to support the benefits of the exercise. Advocates of the procedure argue that it helps in oxygenation, thinning, and removal of secretions (Rauen et al., 2008). All of these claims have been proven to be fallacies by the respective specialists. Furthermore, instillation of has been found to expose patients to bacterial contaminations resulting in cases such as hospital-acquired pneumonia and so forth. Therefore, from my practicum, I can conclude that institution needs to change its saline installation practice.
The practicum setting needs to implement change to avoid outdated practices that are not evidence-based. Such change would entail the AHRQ mode; for knowledge transfer (Titler, 2008). This model is pillared on three key practices; creation and distillation of knowledge, diffusion and dissemination, organizational adaptation and management. Knowledge creation and distillation entails researching while accounting for expected variations in readiness in health care delivery (Titler, 2008). The findings are packaged in a way that they can be translated into evidence-based practice within the organization. End users should inform the process of distilling the information. The next step involves gathering the professional opinion of leaders and healthcare organizations to work together in the sharing of information that can be the basis of action. Such partnerships make it easy for the horizontal transfer of data that can improve patient safety. Lastly, the organization can transition to end-user adoption and instrumentations (Titler, 2008).
In essence, practitioners from one organization can get research findings from another and utilize them. This phase of the process involves getting the entire organization to implement a particular evidence-based practice. It is during this stage that good leadership proves essential as it is often characterized by transitions within the organization. Therefore, the most appropriate change to propose in the practicum setting is the adoption of a system to translate evidence into practice in the organization.
Leaders have a role in guiding the entire change process. Change, despite how small, can be scary and even disorienting in any institution. Hence, it is important to note the facilitators of the planned change. In this case, it would be a long-term change implementation hence it should be driven by agents of long-term perspective (Ghasemy & Hussin, 2015). The leader should also put into account the four change interventions to enable him to achieve the desired outcome. These are commanding, engineering, planning teaching, and socializing (Ghasemy & Hussin, 2015). On the other hand, resistance to change promises to be the greatest inhibitor to the implementation process. Based on my leadership style, transformational leadership, I see several opportunities and challenges in the practicum. The main opportunity is that this style encourages people to adopt new policies and procedures due to the trust and confidence built (Ghasemy & Hussin, 2015). Such outcomes would be extremely beneficial for the organization. Regarding the anticipated challenges, not every leader in the practicum environment uses transformation to lead. As a result, there might be friction from such leaders during the process.
Indeed, the practicum experience has been a challenging as well as a learning platform. I learned that leadership plays a central role in the translation of evidence into practice in the organization. Accordingly, I worked on honing my skills as a leader for the very same purpose. Based on my observations the practicum environment appeared relatively okay. However, practices such as the instillation of normal saline during endotracheal suction could use a change per evidence-based practice. For the institution to ensure that it is constantly translating evidence into practice, they could adopt the AHRQ mode. This adoption will require transformational leadership to be successful.
References
Ghasemy, M., & Hussin, S. (2015). Change, leadership and change- oriented leadership theories in higher education: A review.
Rauen, C. A., Chulay, M., Bridges, E., Vollman, K. & Arbour, R. (2008). Seven evidence-based practice habits: putting some sacred cows out to pasture. Critical Care Nurse, 28(2), 98-123.
Squires, J. E., Estabrooks, C. A., Gustavsson, P., & Wallin, L. (2011). Individual determinants of research utilization by nurses: a systematic review update. Implement Sci, 6(1). .
Titler, M. G. (2008). Chapter 7 the evidence for evidence-based practice implementation. Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses, (7).