NU245CL Unit 1 Clinical Objectives Statement Example

From the Chair by the Door: A Clinical Objectives Statement From a Composite Former Emergency Department Sitter, Building Four Psychiatric Rotation Objectives Against a Habit of Watching Without Speaking

[Student Name]

Purdue University Global

NU245CL: Mental Health Nursing Clinical

Unit 1 Clinical Objectives Statement

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

The writer and settings are composite; objectives are written in general terms, and student scope follows the clinical site's policies and the program's rules.

What I Bring

For two years I worked as a patient sitter in an emergency department, assigned to people on psychiatric holds who were at risk of harming themselves or leaving. My job was to stay within arm's length or in the doorway, watch, and call the nurse if something changed. I became good at noticing: a patient's breathing getting faster before shouting began, someone checking the exits, a hand moving toward a cord. I also learned not to talk much. Sitters were told to be present but not to engage in therapy, and many patients did not want to talk to the person watching them. That background is a strength and a limit. I can observe closely and stay calm when someone is distressed. But I am used to watching from the door, not sitting down and starting a conversation, and on a psychiatric unit the conversation is much of the nursing.

Four Objectives

The first three follow the knowledge, skills and attitudes structure used in nursing competency frameworks (Cronenwett et al., 2007). The fourth addresses a habit I already know I have.

1. Knowledge: by midterm, explain to my instructor the purpose, main side effects and nursing checks for each psychiatric medication my patients receive. Evidence: a medication teaching reflection and my preparation notes.

2. Skill: hold at least one therapeutic conversation of ten minutes or more with an assigned patient each clinical day, using techniques from the course. Evidence: a therapeutic interaction annotation with the techniques named and evaluated.

3. Attitude: describe patients in person-first, behavioral language in every note and post-conference comment. Evidence: my journal entries and the community meeting write-up, reviewed for labels.

4. Self-awareness: notice when I move back to the doorway, physically or in conversation, and write it down. Evidence: a ten-minute reflective note after each shift, kept in my journal.

A sitter watches from the door so that nothing happens; a nurse sits down so that something can.

Where I Stand

I mean this literally. On my first days I expect I will stand near doors and walls, which is where I learned to be useful. Part of my self-awareness objective is to notice where I place myself in the dayroom and what that communicates. A nurse standing by the door can look like a guard, and patients on a locked unit already know who has the keys.

Limits Taken From Policy

I will follow the unit's rules on which areas students may enter, what items may be brought in and what students may not do alone, such as entering a seclusion room or searching belongings without staff. I will not promise patients confidentiality I cannot keep, and I will tell them that what they say may be shared with the team. These limits come from the clinical site's policies, not my own judgment, and I will ask when I am unsure (Halter, 2022).

Self-Awareness Given a Routine

Self-awareness in psychiatric nursing is a skill, not a mood, and it needs a routine (Peplau, 1952). After each shift I will spend ten minutes writing three things: where I stood or sat most of the day, one moment I wanted to step back from a patient and what I did, and one conversation I started. At midterm I will reread the notes to see whether the pattern is changing.

How the Objectives Will Be Checked

At midterm my instructor and I will look at three things: my journal notes on where I stood, at least one annotated conversation and my medication preparation notes. If an objective has no evidence by then, I will rewrite it or change what I am doing, rather than wait for the end of the term. I would rather find out at week five that I am still standing in doorways than at week ten. The objectives are meant to change my practice, not to be graded once and forgotten.

What Success Would Look Like

By the end of the rotation, I would like my instructor to see me sitting with patients in the dayroom, starting conversations, describing people accurately and explaining their medications. I would also like to keep the observer's eye I brought, using it from a chair instead of the doorway.

What Worries Me

I worry that I will be too quiet, that patients will see me as staff to avoid and that I will fill silences with reassurance because I do not know what else to say. Writing these down now gives me something to check against later.

References

Cronenwett, L., Sherwood, G., Barnsteiner, J., Disch, J., Johnson, J., Mitchell, P., Sullivan, D. T., & Warren, J. (2007). Quality and safety education for nurses. Nursing Outlook, 55(3), 122-131. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.outlook.2007.02.006

Halter, M. J. (2022). Varcarolis' foundations of psychiatric-mental health nursing: A clinical approach (9th ed.). Elsevier.

Peplau, H. E. (1952). Interpersonal relations in nursing. G. P. Putnam's Sons.