I thought that simulation went very well today. I was nervous going into the simulation because I did not know what to expect from it, but that is an expected response to any sort of new experience. I feel as though I learned alot from this experience. It is so different using your therapeutic communication with an actual person, than in class with a friend or learning about it in class with a video demonstration. I feel like I gained a lot of knowledge from this experience and it was very helpful to my understanding of how important it is to use therapeutic communication with your patients. I did expect some challenges prior to the simulation, only because I was nervous. I thought that I would get too nervous and not be able to properly communicate with the patients, however that was not the case. I was nervous, but having other people in the room with me to bounce our ideas off of each other helped a lot. We did have some challenges throughout the simulation, particularly in the first one. We did not build enough rapport with our patient and just dove straight into asking them questions. I think it was because we were all nervous and didn’t know what to expect from the simulation. However, we were able to fix it in the last two, and we made sure to build as much rapport with the patient as possible. I believe that this experience really helped me to better understand the importance of mental health and the process that comes along with it. Like I said before, it is different getting lectured about it in class and actually seeing it happen in person. I do believe that this has helped me with my readiness to be able to use this in my practice. I have gained valuable skills that will help me to communicate better with my future patients.
