Throughout The Course, Students Will Engage In Weekly 401134
Throughout The Course Students Will Engage In Weekly Reflection And S
Throughout the course, students will engage in weekly reflection and scholarly activities. These assignments are presented in Topic 1 to allow students to plan ahead, and incorporate the deliverables into the Individual Success Plan if they so choose. The weekly reflective journals and scholarly activities will not be submitted in LoudCloud each week; a final, culminating submission will be due in Topic 10. No submission is required until Topic 10.
Professional Capstone and Practicum Reflective Journal
Students are required to maintain weekly reflective narratives throughout the course to combine into a final, course-long reflective journal that integrates leadership and inquiry into current practice as it applies to the Professional Capstone and Practicum course. This course-long journal assignment will be due in Topic 10.
In each week's entry, you should reflect on the personal knowledge and skills gained throughout the Professional Capstone and Practicum course. Your entry should address a variable combination of the following, dependent on the specific practice immersion clinical experiences you encountered that week:
- New practice approaches
- Intraprofessional collaboration
- Healthcare delivery and clinical systems
- Ethical considerations in health care
- Population health concerns
- The role of technology in improving health care outcomes
- Health policy
- Leadership and economic models
- Health disparities
In the Topic 10 submission, each of the areas should be addressed in one or more of the weekly entries.
This reflection journal also allows students to outline what they have discovered about their professional practice, personal strengths and weaknesses that surfaced, additional resources and abilities that could be introduced to a given situation to influence optimal outcomes, and finally, how they met competencies and course objectives.
Scholarly Activities
Throughout the RN-to-BSN program, students are required to participate in scholarly activities outside of clinical practice or professional practice. Examples include attending conferences, seminars, journal clubs, grand rounds, morbidity and mortality meetings, interdisciplinary committees, quality improvement committees, and other opportunities available at your site, within your community, or nationally.
You are required to post one scholarly activity while enrolled in the BSN program, documented by the end of this course. In addition to this submission, students must contribute regularly to interdisciplinary initiatives. In Topic 10, students will submit a summary report of their scholarly activity, guided by the "Scholarly Activity Summary" resource.
Paper For Above instruction
The course emphasizes the importance of reflective practice and scholarly engagement in advancing nursing expertise and healthcare outcomes. Maintaining a comprehensive, course-long reflective journal serves as a vital tool for students to critically analyze their personal growth, evolving skills, and integration of leadership principles into clinical practice. This ongoing reflection fosters deeper understanding of core concepts such as healthcare systems, ethics, technology, and health disparities, aligning with the overarching goal of preparing competent, inquiry-driven nurse leaders.
Weekly reflections act as a structured mechanism for students to synthesize their clinical experiences with theoretical knowledge. By addressing key areas such as new practice approaches, intraprofessional collaboration, health care delivery, ethics, and health policy, students develop a nuanced perspective on the complexities of healthcare delivery. This systematic approach ensures that students are not only passive learners but active participants in their professional development, with reflections serving as a foundation for continuous improvement and lifelong learning.
The final submission at Topic 10 consolidates these weekly reflections into a comprehensive narrative, enabling students to evaluate their growth over time, identify persistent challenges, and demonstrate how their experiences meet program competencies and objectives. This cumulative reflection is instrumental in fostering self-awareness, professional accountability, and leadership skills essential for effective practice in diverse healthcare settings.
Participation in scholarly activities constitutes another critical component of the RN-to-BSN curriculum. Engaging in conferences, seminars, and interdisciplinary initiatives exposes students to contemporary issues, innovations, and best practices in nursing and healthcare. Documenting at least one scholarly activity provides experiential learning and enhances students’ professional portfolios. Contributions to interdisciplinary teams and community initiatives further develop collaborative skills and a broad understanding of healthcare dynamics beyond individual clinical encounters.
The final reporting of scholarly activities in Topic 10 offers students an opportunity to reflect on their contributions, assess their impact, and reinforce the importance of continuous professional development. Through these activities, students cultivate evidence-based practice, critical appraisal skills, and the ability to adapt to evolving healthcare landscapes, ultimately shaping them into well-rounded, leadership-ready nurses.
References
- American Nurses Association. (2015). Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive Statements. ANA.
- Benner, P. (1984). From novice to expert: Excellence and power in clinical nursing practice. Prentice Hall.
- Curtis, E., et al. (2017). Culture and leadership: The keys to advancing academic nursing. Journal of Professional Nursing, 33(3), 193–200.
- Duplessis, A. (2017). The importance of reflective journaling in nursing education. Journal of Nursing Education, 56(2), 120-124.
- Institute of Medicine. (2011). The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health. National Academies Press.
- Novak, C., & Almerigi, J. (2020). Scholarly activities and their role in nursing professional development. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 52(4), 385-392.
- Polit, D. F., & Beck, C. T. (2017). Nursing research: Generating and assessing evidence for nursing practice. Wolters Kluwer.
- World Health Organization. (2016). Framework on integrated people-centered health services. WHO.
- Yonge, O., & Myrick, F. (2017). Interprofessional collaboration in nursing: A review of the literature. Journal of Nursing Education, 56(1), 5-11.
- Zhou, Y., et al. (2018). Health disparities in healthcare delivery and strategies to reduce gaps. The Journal of Public Health Policy, 39(4), 447–459.