Goals and Questions for Journals
Approved list of goals to utilize in your journals: The approved list of goals for writing journals
appears below. Note that some are semester-specific. In most cases one goal per journal is sufficient.
Journal Rubric
Please, no exact repetition of goals.
Goal Development From General to Specific: Goals should ideally start off more “general” and
become more “specific” over time. Goals are not to be the same as what you are studying in your theory
class at the time.
Part I: Pick ONE of the journal goals under A, B, or C:
A. Psychiatric Evaluations/Diagnoses Goals:
1. Completion of a full psychiatric evaluation on an adult, geriatric or pediatric patient.
B. Medications Goals (pick one):
1. Elaborate upon the principles of action, interaction, and prescribing principles for __________ (list
the medication).
2. Describe the integration of case-based complexities when caring for and prescribing medications for
a patient using polypharmacological agents.
3. Indicate additional options within medication classes with the pros and cons of each choice in
relation to the decision made for your particular patient. (e.g.; mood stabilizers, antipsychotics, etc.).
4. Point out the considerations including possible drug-drug interactions between birth control
medications and ____________ (list specific category of medications or a specific medication).
C. Laboratories Goals (pick one):
1. Indicate when to discontinue or switch a medication based upon a certain laboratory value and why.
(E.g.; kidney, liver, CBC, thyroid, etc.)
2. Discuss thoroughly why and what guidelines are pertinent to the management of patients for which
clozapine is prescribed and implications for a patient on Clozaril (or other critical laboratory value for
medication)
3. Interpret the application of laboratory values when prescribing ________ (for a certain drug or
category of medication).
Part II: Writing the Journal Entry:
In your journals, identify the goal from the list, write the topic, and the question that you have chosen to
reflect upon.
Closely follow the rubric as a guideline when writing the journal paper
APA format is expected for full credit
Sample Paper
Journal Goals
Journal goal A. Psychiatric Evaluations/Diagnoses Goals: Completion of complete psychiatric evaluation on an adult patient.
The comprehensive psychiatric evaluation aims at establishing whether a mental illness demanding attention of a psychiatrist is present (Satiani et al.,2018). I will be evaluating A.A., an African American male adult who visited the facility earlier in the morning accompanied by his wife. A.A. complained of hallucinations, delusions, and speech that seemed disorganized. These complaints helped me ask questions regarding the psychiatric evaluation of adults. For instance, what is involved and challenges in assessing patients who present with complaints of psychiatric disorders?
Approximately 18 percent of U.S adults have been approved as meeting at least one common psychiatric disorder (Dai & Jonnagaddala.,2018). Psychiatric evaluation bears a crucial part of an interview with the patient. The interview-based data is incorporated in the information that other evaluation components can achieve, such as reviewing medical records, diagnostic assessments, physical examination, and history from the indemnity sources. Psychiatric evaluation of adults includes completing a detailed physical, medical, and history examination. Numerous diagnostic tests such as MRI scans can be applied.
Journal Questions
Question 1: The key objective for the unit’s clinical experience was to understand what is involved when completing a full psychiatric evaluation on an adult patient. The knowledge attained will help inform on awareness of personal and professional accountability and challenges related to appropriately completing this particular evaluation. For example, the challenge of inconsistency in the assessment tools that is very heterogeneous despite being built mainly on set symptom standards. With new information attained, including what I am aware of in this evaluation, it will be moved ahead by leading more research on this topic for excellent patient wellness at the end. For instance, researching how to solve the challenges related to the assessment that can lead to effective evaluation.
Question 2: Some of the academic sources I read included health and medical journals. In the health article, I identified that rather than establishing whether mental illness or other disorder requiring psychiatrist’s care is present, evaluation similarly might help collect appropriate data to support the differential diagnosis completing clinical formulation (Wardrope, Newberry & Reuber.,2018). In the medical journal, I identified that in psychiatric evaluation, it’s advisable to figure out the patient’s previous medical history and medicines they currently are taking for ideal assessments (Xie et al.,2019). They can similarly be asked about any history of mental conditions in their family.
Question 3: The information I obtained helped inform the diagnosis area regarding patient care. Currently, I am aware that when a psychiatric diagnosis is precise and completed on time, the patient has the best opportunity for positive health outcomes. This is because clinical decision-making may be completed to correctly understand the patient’s health issue. For instance, accurate and timely Alzheimer’s Disease diagnosis is essential for improving patient care and appropriate use of the anticipated disease-modifying therapies (Liss et al.,2021).
Question 4: To enlighten the patient who’s not informed on this topic, I could use the information I have achieved to prepare for training sessions to educate them. These sessions would inform patients on safety assessment procedures for their benefits and why they should keenly follow their provider’s recommendations for ideal outcomes. For instance, patient encouraging and keeping engagement. This is because poor engagement can lead to worse clinical results, with symptom deterioration and rehospitalization (Dixon, Holoshitz & Nossel.,2018). I can similarly formulate a link based on the topic and provide journal copies with the topic’s information. For example, information on the importance of psychiatric evaluation and how they should cooperate to acquire excellent results. With these sessions, links, and health journals, the patient quickly gets the information to collaborate for best.
Question 5: One significant challenge I met when integrating client care information on clinical-based experience was lack of consistent training sessions. This was caused by issues such as patient language barriers and increased costs. For instance, due to increased costs for training the patients, the sessions were not continuous. Another challenge met was patient noncompliance (Mohiuddin.,2019). For instance, the client purposely refused to observe procedures associated with timely and safe assessment practices, like observing the engagement for the evaluation.
References
Dai, H. J., & Jonnagaddala, J. (2018). Assessing the severity of positive valence symptoms in initial psychiatric evaluation records: Should we use convolutional neural networks. PloS one, 13(10), e0204493. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0204493
Dixon, L. B., Holoshitz, Y., & Nossel, I. (2018). Treatment engagement of individuals experiencing mental illness: review and update. World Psychiatry, 15(1), 13-20. Doi: 10.1002/wps.20306
Liss, J. L., Seleri Assunção, S., Cummings, J., Atri, A., Geldmacher, D. S., Candela, S. F., … & Sabbagh, M. N. (2021). Practical recommendations for timely, accurate diagnosis of symptomatic Alzheimer’s disease (MCI and dementia) in primary care: a review and synthesis. Journal of Internal Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1111/joim.13244
Mohiuddin, A. K. (2019). Patient Compliance: Fact or Fiction. INNOVATIONS in pharmacy, 10(1). Doi: 10.24926/iip.v10i1.1621
Satiani, A., Niedermier, J., Satiani, B., & Svendsen, D. P. (2018). The projected workforce of psychiatrists in the United States: a population analysis. Psychiatric Services, 69(6), 710-713. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ps.201700344
Wardrope, A., Newberry, E., & Reuber, M. (2018). Diagnostic criteria to aid the differential diagnosis of patients presenting with transient loss of consciousness: A systematic review. Seizure, 61, 139-148. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seizure.2018.08.012
