AGACNP Program Plan for Required Experience

 

 

Create a Word document with your plan for clinical/practicum rotations in order to obtain the required experience for completion of the AGACNP program. Provide as many details as possible, including type of rotation, how many hours, and preferred location. This can be a dream schedule, mixed dream and known, or all mapped out. Share your thoughts on your plans after completing the program.

Sample Solution

My plan for clinical/practicum rotations is to complete a total of 1100 hours across two semesters. During the first semester, I will focus on adult health and critical care nursing with 600 hours in each specialty. For the second semester, I will divide my time between acute care and primary care settings, with 500 hours dedicated to each area.

I would like to begin my first rotation in an urban academic medical center setting where I can receive hands-on experience caring for patients with complex medical histories. This rotation should last approximately 300 hours and include experiences in both the ICU and general medicine units. Following this, I would like to rotate through a community hospital specializing in geriatric health as well as a long-term acute care facility focusing on post-acute rehabilitation services–both of which should give me exposure to a variety of patient populations.

My ideal placement for my second semester would be at an outpatient clinic located near my home where I can continue developing my skills as an adult-gerontology nurse practitioner while simultaneously deepening my knowledge base around preventative healthcare measures. The final 200 hours of this rotation will be spent rotating through several private physician offices so that I am able to gain insight into how different providers practice medicine within their own unique contexts (Love & Moore, 2018).

After completing the AGACNP program and attaining licensure, it is my goal to pursue employment opportunities working full-time at a hospital or outpatient clinic providing direct primary or acute patient care services. Long term, I plan on eventually becoming certified as an AANP Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN) – Board Certified Adult Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner which will further enhance my credentials within the field (AANPCB., 2020).

In conclusion, while there are many possible paths one could take when planning out their clinical/practicum rotations – depending on individual goals and preferences – it’s important nonetheless to curate such experiences thoughtfully so that they contribute towards tangible career objectives.

As humans, we continuously seek out things that can produce pleasurable feelings. One of the few ways to attain this feeling of euphoria or pleasure is by consumption of chemical substances. However, continuous consumption of these substances can lead to development of dependence towards them and this is more commonly known as addiction. Currently, the cost of social and economic impacts due to drugs of abuse addiction sums up to more than $740 billion annually (National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2017). Despite this, the clear neurophysiological mechanisms underlying development and progression of addiction is still unknown.

Addiction can be defined as repeated self-administration of alcohol or other drugs (AOD’s) despite knowledge of adverse medical and social consequences and attempts to abstain from AOD use (Robert & Koob, 1997). Initial intake of drug may be due influenced by genetic, psychosocial or environmental factors however, subsequent doses is most probably caused by action on drug on the brain to induce the drug-seeking behaviour. Addiction is comprised of three stages which are ‘binge/intoxication’, ‘withdrawal/negative affect’, and ‘preoccupation/anticipation’ as seen in Figure 1 (Koob &Volkow, 2010).

Figure 1. The Three stages of addiction and brain areas each stage associates with (Herman & Roberto, 2015)

‘Binge/intoxication’ refers to the consistent intake of drug after initial dose which may cause decrease in dopamine release after each intake due to sensitization. This will then lead to ‘withdrawal/negative affect’ stage where absence of drug will cause a decrease in dopamine causing anxious and restless feelings resulting in the craving or ‘preoccupation/anticipation’ stage. Two major factors known to modulate these behavioural changes are reinforcement where a stimulus increases the chance of response and neuroadaptation, the process by which neuronal structures change in response to drug exposure. Modulation of these factors motivates initial response to a drug and formation of long-term craving however, relapse is thought to be caused by permanent neuroadaptations that will cause discomfort during withdrawal (Robert & Koob, 1997)

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