NURS20158 Clinical Foundations for Practice - Portfolio Assessment

Background

Think of the portfolio as having two functions.

The Portfolio provides documentary evidence of your capabilities as a Mental Health Nurse, (MHN) as defined by the Australian College of Mental Health Nurses, and can be used as a life-long tool to develop and store evidence of formal and informal learning, professional development, career achievements and reflective practice.     

Secondly, components of your portfolio are required for assessment tasks for each unit within this course.  You must pass the portfolio assessment to pass each unit.

This Portfolio asks you to complete the following 7 activities:

Portfolio activity 1

Choose two reflection questions from those in Module 1 and provide a reflection on the questions you chose. 

• Do you currently have any strong views about psychotropic medications?
• What is your normal practice when a client questions their medication?
• What positive impacts have you witnessed in relation to psychotropic medication?
• What negative impacts have you witnessed in relation to psychotropic medication?
• Is it ethical to force someone to take medication?

Portfolio activity 2

Complete a Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) on a client you are currently working with or have been involved with in the past. (If you are not working in a mental health setting,  complete the BPRS on a client you are familiar with or on a colleague or other). Present the complete de-identified document in your portfolio. 

Portfolio activity 3

Perform a Becks depression inventory on yourself and another person. Write a short reflective piece on this exercise. 

Portfolio activity 4

Construct a table with 8 lines and 2 columns. List 8 benzodiazepines in the first column. In the second column, list the half-life described in the MIMs for each benzodiazepine. This half-life should be based on that associated with healthy adults under the age of 65 with no pre-existing conditions. Present this table as part of your portfolio. 

Portfolio activity 5

Choose an alternative therapy discussed in Module 7. Write a short reflection on how and why  you would, or would not, incorporate this therapy into your nursing practice or your practice area. Ensure that you draw on literature in this reflection. 

Positive psychology

Exercise

Nutrition as medication

Fish oil 

Cannabis

Portfolio activity 6

Prepare a single A4 sized information page/flyer (or about 500 words) on electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). The information page/flyer should be suitable for a client who is indecisive about whether to pursue ECT as a treatment. Ensure you include information on preparation, procedure, recovery, and possible adverse effects. Construct this resource so that you would be comfortable using it in your practice. Include a reputable website address, where the client can find further good quality information. 

Portfolio activity 7

Reflect on the way that you engaged with a client and the information you would provide this client when administering depot medication.

NURS20158. Portfolio Marking Criteria

Submitting your Portfolio

A Portfolio assessment needs to be submitted the same way each time, no matter the unit.  I thought I might try to alleviate some of the confusion with a gentle reminder that you need to complete two steps to submit a portfolio and your portfolio needs to be submitted in TWO places

STEP 1

It’s incredibly important you submit onto the Be Different Platform. You submit it just like you would a normal assignment.

STEP 2

You ALSO  need to submit your  portfolio on to the Portfolium platform.

***NB> If you submit your portfolio only to the Portfolium platform  without submitting to the Be Different platform as well, we have no way of knowing that you have submitted your portfolio, markers won’t be alerted  to the fact that your portfolio needs marking and it won’t get marked.

 Literature and references- if required

• Use literature of no more than 10 years old (from peer-reviewed sources) to demonstrate broad consideration of your alternate nursing interventions.
• You may also use seminal scholarly literature where relevant.
• Suitable references include peer-reviewed journal articles as well as textbooks and credible websites.
• When sourcing information, consider the five elements of a quality reference: currency, authority, relevance, objectivity, and coverage. Grey literature sourced from the internet must be from reputable websites such as from government, university, or peak national bodies: for example, the Australian College of Nursing.

Requirements

• Use a conventional and legible size 12 font, such as Times New Roman or Arial, with 1.5 line spacing and 2.54cm page margins (standard pre-set margin in Microsoft Word).
• Include page numbers on each page in a footer.
• Use the seventh edition American Psychological Association (APA) referencing style. The CQUniversity Academic Learning Centre has an online APA Referencing Style Guide.

Helpful Resources

• The quality and credibility of your sources are important.
• It is recommended that you access your discipline specific library guide: the Nursing Resource Guide; Midwifery Resource Guide;
• You may use EndNote to manage your citations and reference list. More information on how to use EndNote is available at the CQUniversity Library website.
• Submit a draft before the due date to review your Turnitin Similarity Score before making a final submission. Instructions are available here. Remember, for a final submission, you must press the submit button twice, otherwise your portfolio will remain in draft form and not be marked.

Reattempt

• If you receive a Fail for this Portfolio, you will be allowed to re-attempt it.
• If you do decide not to re-attempt, your original Fail mark will be applied. please remember you must pass your portfolio to pass each unit.