My understanding of chronic diseases and the care focus on palliative patients have

significantly increased throughout this chronic disease placement practice. I remember that on

the first day of clinical, I looked forward to doing more medical care and hands-on skills

related to wound care and treatment interventions. However, the main focus on the palliative

floor was comfort care, which was the opposite of my expectation. As time passed, I found

myself enjoying the slow pace on this floor, and I was grateful to have more time to build

rapport with the patient and their families.

My learning goals for this placement are developing multitasking and time-

management skills, feeling comfortable caring for EOL patients, and improving hands-on

nursing skills. I have met all my goals throughout the clinical experience. For the first goal, I

could complete multiple tasks without leaving the patient’s room. The second goal was

achieved as I cared for more sedated EOL patients while maintaining patient dignity, and

confidently communicated with their families about my assessment findings. Lastly, this

placement also provided me with more opportunities to practice wound dressing changes,

evaluate wounds, set up sterile fields, change bed sheets and many more nursing skills.

I enjoyed the time I spent on the palliative floor at PRHC, and I felt prepared for my

pre-consolidation. My goals for the pre-consolidation placement are mainly improving my

accountability and critical thinking abilities. I hope I can identify the connection between

patients’ medication and their diagnosis, predict the potential complications and risks based on

the patient’s lab values and health status, and be aware of the patient’s comfort level by the

end of the placement.