Practicum Week 1 journal: nursing + counseling theory

This is a first-week journal, so the marker is not looking for clinical results you have not had yet — they are looking for whether you can name the frame you will practise inside before you start. That is why the entry asks for two theories rather than one. The nursing theory describes what you believe the nurse-client relationship is and does; Peplau's interpersonal relations theory is the standard psychiatric choice because it treats the relationship itself as the therapeutic instrument, but Watson, Orem or Roy are all defensible if you can say why. The counseling theory describes the mechanism you will use inside that relationship to change something: cognitive behavioural, psychodynamic, humanistic, solution-focused, motivational interviewing. Papers lose marks by choosing two theories that do the same job, or by describing both at length and never writing the one sentence that says how they fit together, which is the sentence the marker is reading for.

The word support in the instruction is doing real work. Explain why you selected these theories has to be answered with evidence-based literature rather than with preference, so each choice needs at least one citation that says something about the theory's fit — the population you will see at your site, the presenting problems, the session length available, the evidence base for the modality in those conditions. A sentence like I chose CBT because it is widely used is not a justification. A sentence like the site is an outpatient clinic where most referrals are anxiety and depression and brief structured protocols have the strongest evidence in that population is. Say what your practicum setting is early, because both justifications depend on it and the marker cannot judge fit without knowing the setting. If your placement is not yet confirmed, describe the setting you have been allocated and say that it is provisional.

Goals and objectives are marked as separate things, and conflating them is the single most common failure in this assignment. A goal is the broad end state for the term: to develop competence in conducting psychotherapeutic assessments. An objective is the measurable step that shows you got there: to complete ten supervised intake assessments using a structured interview format by the end of week eight. Write three goals, then write objectives underneath them that are specific, measurable and dated, and you have satisfied both the at least three requirements and the timeline requirement at once. The timeline should then map those objectives onto the practicum weeks, including the fixed points — orientation, supervision sessions, midterm evaluation, required clinical hours — so it reads as a plan rather than a wish list. Use the Practicum Journal Template supplied in the course rather than your own headings.