Course Reflective Summary

Med Surg 4
Alysia Brillhart

I can hardly believe that I am just getting ready to finish up with my very last med-surg

class. It seems like so long ago I was starting nursing success skills and foundations of nursing.

Now, I am done with my clinical precepting and I am in the last week before my last finals of

nursing school. This has definitely been quite a journey.

I learned a lot in my Med-Surg 4 class. I really feel like all of the information I have

learned in each of the med-surg classes I have taken prior to this class were the building blocks

and this last med-surg class tied everything altogether. I can definitely say that my nursing

knowledge has expanded greatly compared to my very first semester in nursing school.

One thing I enjoyed about this semester was learning about burns. Before this course, I

really didn’t know much about burns and how to care for patients with burns. At the hospital I

currently work at, we never get burn patients so this was interesting to learn more about.

A second thing that I enjoyed about this class was that I got to do precepting on 4North.

I had a great experience in precepting because I had a kind, compassionate, knowledgeable and

hardworking preceptor to learn from. I got to care for up to 3 patients and I truly feel that

precepting made me more comfortable with passing medications, performing assessments, and

prioritizing patient care. In addition, precepting helped me meet a few of the ASN

Student Learning Outcomes. I incorporated the ASN Student Learning Outcome 1 by providing

nursing care to all of the patients I cared for utilizing legal and ethical scope and standards of

nursing practice. I did this by ensuring that I provide care equally for all of the patients. In

addition, I incorporated ASN Student Learning Outcome 2, promoting an interdisciplinary

approach to effectively use resources, by working with doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists,

physical therapists, aides, and other members of the healthcare team to help treat patients and

promote overall health.

One of the assignments that we did this semester was a nursing process paper. The

nursing process paper was written about one of the patients that I had an opportunity to care

for during clinical this semester. Writing the process paper gave me the opportunity to meet

the ASN Student Learning Outcome 3 of utilizing the nursing process to influence client

outcomes across the lifespan. In addition, I also utilized ASN Student Learning Outcome 4 by

adapting holistic teaching and learning principles to promote health for the patient that I wrote

the process paper on. For example, the patient had essential oils that she used to help relieve

pain and I incorporated that into one of her care plans regarding acute pain.

Overall, I really enjoyed my Med-Surg 4 class and clinical. I truly feel that the critical care

concepts that I learned in this class will help prepare me for caring for critical patients in the

future. In addition, I feel that clinical and precepting also helped prepare me to so that I will be

able to always meet ASN Student Learning Outcome 6, demonstrating caring, safe, and

competent nursing interventions in diverse healthcare settings. Everything that I have learned

this semester will help me provide safe, effective, quality care to all patients I will care for in the

near future as a nurse.