Bon Secours Memorial College of Nursing

NUR 3112P: Adult Nursing Science II Practicum

Peer Leader Practicum Experience- Stephanie Cruz

1. Finalize the acuity list by adding or subtracting pertinent information. Are there any
changes in the acuity ranking of the assignments? Give rationale.

I changed two of the acuity ratings. There was one patient who was on tpn and had a PEG
tube that I placed higher on the acuity scale. She was stable and was being moved to a step
down unit so I moved her off of my list. There was also a patient who was receiving blood
that I moved higher on the list because of the possible reactions and monitoring involved.

2. What problem(s) or concerns did you encounter as the peer leader? What did you do to
solve the problem(s)?

The problems that I encountered as the peer leader was the lack of pre assessment ability. It
was more difficult to rank acuity without pre assessing. I used my chart and organization
skills to help me with this. I used my time wisely.

3. Describe 3 principles of servant leadership and how you portrayed each of them as a peer
leader. (Minimum 3 paragraphs. Reference in APA is required.)

Listening is a skill that servant leaders utilize in their practice. They actively listen
and participate in the conversation (Fahlberg, 2016). I actively listened to my peers
during the day. If someone had a question, I actively listened and answered them and
helped when I could. I spoke with a class mate about anemia and the labs that are
involved.
Empathy is an important part to being an effective servant leader. It is having an
understanding and realizing that every person is a person, not a situation or disease
(Fahlberg, 2016). It is looking for the positive in a person or situation. It is also being
able to understand where the person is coming and not feeling sorry for the individual. I
was helping a classmate and I was speaking with her client to ease her nerves. I held her
hand when she was having her blood drawn. It is important to be empathetic to a patient’s
plight because everyone has the idiosyncrasies. I also used empathy when approaching a
classmate on one of their assessments. I was tactful in my approach.
Another aspect to servant leadership is awareness. It is important to know your
strengths, weaknesses, and values while respecting others who may have different
qualities (Fahlberg, 2016). While I was helping my classmate draw blood, I learned that
we had different learning styles. At first I was more hands on and I realized this was not
how she wanted me to approach the situation. I took a step back and intervened when it
was more appropriate. I had to be aware of my approach and its effect on the fluidity of
the situation.

Reference:

Fahlberg, B. (2016). Servant leadership: A model for emerging nurse leaders. Nursing,
46(10), 49-52. doi:10.1097/01.NURSE.0000494644.77680.2a

Rev. November 7, 2018