Week 1 Journal

As a future advanced practice nurse, it is important that you are able to connect your classroom experience to your practicum experience. By applying the concepts you study in the classroom to clinical settings, you enhance your professional competency. Each week, you complete an Assignment such as a Journal Entry or SOAP Note that prompts you to reflect on your practicum experiences and relate them to the material presented in the classroom. This week, you begin documenting your practicum experiences in your Practicum Journal. To prepare for this course’s Practicum Experience, address the following in your practicum journal:

• Select an aging theory to guide your practice.
• Develop goals and objectives for the Practicum Experience in this course. Be sure to consider geriatric competencies.
• Create a timeline of practicum activities based on your practicum requirements.

Week 2 Journal

To prepare for this course’s Practicum Experience, reflect on implications of age-related changes in geriatric patients. Explain how you might differentiate between normal behaviors/disorders due to aging and abnormal behavior/disorders that are not age related. Include how functional assessments might help distinguish “normal” from “abnormal.”

Week 4 Journal

Reflect on medication adherence issues you have encountered with geriatric patients in your practicum setting. Explain implications of these issues on patient health, as well as strategies to improve medication adherence for geriatric patients. If you did not have an opportunity to evaluate a patient with this background during the last 4 weeks, you can select a related case study or reflect on previous clinical experiences.

*Please use APA format. Cite references within the paper along with a reference list at the end.