Assignment: Nursing Practice Capstone

Assignment: Nursing Practice Capstone

Assignment: Nursing Practice Capstone

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This week we are asked to consider the overlap between the Standards of Professional Nursing Practice and the CLAS categories and how this applies to our own area of nursing practice. After reviewing the CLAS standards, I saw that there are many parallels in the two lists of standards. A few similarities that stand out to me are: collection of relevant and accurate data which can be applied demographically, identification of barriers of health, prioritization of culturally relevant healthcare goals (American Nurses Association, 2015), and use of culturally appropriate teaching materials that are in line with the patient’s developmental level and preferential language (ThinkCulturalHealth.com, 2019). All of these have culture at the forefront because they may differ greatly depending on where a patient is from or depending on what cultural practices they may follow.

I live and practice nursing in the North San Diego County area. This is a culturally diverse area where we are frequently taking these things into consideration. My peers and I are expected to be culturally sensitive, without exception. We frequently have patients of all ages from other cultures, religions, backgrounds and belief systems. These elements may come into nursing practice regarding patient preferences. For example, patients may not wish to eat certain foods, may not wish to receive certain types of care, or may want to have nursing staff of a certain gender. We hold ourselves to high standards and focus on patient centered care for each patient. At our hospital we also aim to communicate regarding the patient’s background and preferences to oncoming staff at shift change, with hope of creating continuity in care and treatment planning.

Discuss one nursing action you might incorporate to improve cultural competence in your organization.

It is said that cultural competence in healthcare is essential, and that it comes through experience and self-reflection (Garneau & Pepin, 2015). I agree with this concept. I believe the first step of developing cultural competence is in reflecting on our own beliefs or values and determining our comfort level with ideas that are different than our own. As nurses, we connect with patients and use therapeutic communication to listen and learn about their preferences and values. Therapeutic communication combined with honest self-reflection can teach us not only about ourselves but about cultural competence as well. Through self-enrichment, reflection and by communicating with our culturally diverse patients we can improve cultural competence both personally as well as in our organizations. I truly believe that each patient deserves respect and understanding of their beliefs in their medical treatment.

References

American Nurses Association. (2015). Nursing: scope and standards of practice (3rd ed.). Silver Spring, MD: Author.

Garneau, A. B., & Pepin, J. (2015). A constructivist theoretical proposition of cultural competence development in nursing. Nurse education today, 35(11), 1062-1068. Retrieved from https://www-sciencedirect-com.chamberlainuniversity.idm.oclc.org/science/article/pii/S0260691715002476 (Links to an external site.)

ThinkCulturalHealth.com. (2019). National culturally and linguistically appropriate services standards. Department of Health and Human services. Retrieved from https://thinkculturalhealth.hhs.gov/clas/standards

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

Discussion Questions (DQ)

• Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
• Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
• One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
• I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.

Weekly Participation

• Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
• In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
• Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
• Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.

APA Format and Writing Quality

• Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
• Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
• I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.

Use of Direct Quotes

• I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
• As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
• It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.

 

LopesWrite Policy

• For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
• Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
• Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
• Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.

Late Policy

• The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
• Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
• If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
• I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
• As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.

Communication

• Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me: 
  • Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
  • Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.