Self-Assessment Form

Desired Clinical Skills for Students to Achieve	Confident (Can complete independently)	Mostly confident (Can complete with supervision)	Beginning (Have performed with supervision or need supervision to feel confident)		New (Have never performed or does not apply)
Comprehensive psychiatric evaluation skills in:
Recognizing clinical signs and symptoms of psychiatric illness across the lifespan		X
Differentiating between pathophysiological and psychopathological conditions				X
Performing and interpreting a comprehensive and/or interval history and physical examination (including laboratory and diagnostic studies)		X
Performing and interpreting a mental status examination		X
Performing and interpreting a psychosocial assessment and family psychiatric history		X
Performing and interpreting a functional assessment (activities of daily living, occupational, social, leisure, educational).		X
Diagnostic reasoning skill in:
Developing and prioritizing a differential diagnoses list				X
Formulating diagnoses according to DSM 5 based on assessment data				X
Differentiating between normal/abnormal age-related physiological and psychological symptoms/changes				X
Pharmacotherapeutic skills in:
Selecting appropriate evidence based clinical practice guidelines for medication plan (e.g., risk/benefit, patient preference, developmental considerations, financial, the process of informed consent, symptom management)				X
Evaluating patient response and modify plan as necessary				X
Documenting (e.g., adverse reaction, the patient response, changes to the plan of care)				X
Psychotherapeutic Treatment Planning:
Recognizes concepts of therapeutic modalitiesacross the lifespan				X
Selecting appropriate evidence based clinical practice guidelines for psychotherapeutic plan (e.g., risk/benefit, patient preference, developmental considerations, financial, the process of informed consent, symptom management, modality appropriate for situation)				X
Applies age appropriate psychotherapeutic counseling techniques with individuals, families, and/or groups
Develop an age appropriate individualized plan of care				X
Provide psychoeducation to individuals, family, and/or groups	X
Promote health and disease prevention techniques	X
Self-Assessment skills:
Develop SMART goals for practicum experiences	X
Evaluating outcomes of practicum goals and modify plan as necessary	X
Documenting and reflecting on learning experiences	X
Professional skills:
Maintains professional boundaries and therapeutic relationship with clients and staff	X
Collaborate with multi-disciplinary teams to improve clinical practice in mental health settings	X
Identifies ethical and legal dilemmas with possible resolutions				X
Demonstrates non-judgmental practice approach and empathy	X
Practices within scope of practice		X
Selecting and implementing appropriate screening instrument(s), interpreting results, and making recommendations and referrals:
Demonstrates selecting the correct screening instrument appropriate for the clinical situation				X
Implements the screening instrument efficiently and effectively with the clients				X
Interprets results for screening instruments accurately				X
Develops an appropriate plan of care based upon screening instruments response				X
Identifies the need to refer to another specialty provider when applicable				X
Accurately documents recommendations for psychiatric consultations when applicable				X

 

Summary of strengths:

The clinical skills self-assessment has helped me identify the clinical skills that I can confidently perform with regard to my future PMHNP role.  I have identified that I am mostly confident demonstrating my comprehensive psychiatric evaluation skills, self-assessment skills, and professional skills. During the self-assessment, I have learned that I am confident in my skills of providing psychoeducation to clients and provide health and disease prevention strategies to various patient populations (Cai et al., 2022). I can attribute my professional skills to my work experience as a registered nurse where I have learned how to create and sustain professional boundaries and therapeutic relationship with patients and other healthcare professionals. During my RN practice, I have mostly been part of an interdisciplinary team where I collaborate with other providers to provide quality and safe patient care (Wheeler et al., 2022). I have also learned to interact with patients in a non-judgmental way and demonstrate empathy to clients and their families.

 

Opportunities for growth:

The self-assessment activity not only helped me identify my confident areas but also that I am less confident and require supervision when performing. These are the skills that I need to pay more attention to during this clinical practicum and ensure that I am confident by the end of the practicum. I have identified opportunities of growth in pharmacotherapeutic skills, diagnostic reasoning, psychotherapeutic treatment planning, and selecting and using screening instruments (American Psychiatric Nurses Association, 2020); Kumar et al., 2020). I need to improve my ability to perform these skills because I will require them in my future PMHNP practice given that the roles of a PMHNP include assessing patients, diagnosing, and developing and implementing treatment plans