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HONORS SELF- DESIGNED PROPOSAL

Complete this proposal prior to your experiences start date and upload it in the UHP Database
(https://webapps.uc.edu/uchonorsstudent). Create an experience (Add a new record) in the Tracking Project
tab and upload your proposal document as an attachment. The deadline for submitting proposals is the 5th of
each month.

Proposals are intended to be well developed plans for your experience. However, experiences are exploratory in
nature, and we are flexible with changes throughout the experience. If your experience changes after receiving
approval on your proposal, contact your honors advisor to verify the changes still satisfy the requirements of an
honors experience.

Basic Information
Full Name: Olivia Spampinato
Title of Project: Patient Care Assistant
Thematic Area(s): Leadership and Community Engagement
Expected Start Date: May, 2017
Expected End Date: September, 2017

GUIDELINES

1. Proposal submission timeline: Proposals should be submitted at least one month prior to the expected
start date of the experience. International experiences require at least two months notice. Contact your
honors advisor immediately for any exceptions.
2. Proposal length: While the quality of the proposal is most important, strong proposals are typically 3-4
pages single-spaced.
3. Proposal format: Please maintain the proposal format (e.g. headers, layout)
4. Time commitment: Experiences should consist of at least 75-90 hours of preparation, execution, and
reflection. This is approximately equivalent to the commitment of honors seminars and pre-approved
experiences.

REQUIREMENTS FOR INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL

All self-designed international travel experiences require two months notice and must be at least one week in
length. You will need to provide a detailed itinerary (dates, locations and activities). If participating in
independent travel (not with UC faculty, staff or student group), you must also fill out a Worldwide: Honors
Experience application via UC International.

Additionally, the Student Travel Policy restricts UC-sponsored travel to countries under a U.S. Department of
State Travel Warning. Those who wish to visit a country with a travel warning must seek an exemption through
UC International. Students traveling without a faculty or staff leader must individually request an exemption.
We cannot allow you to count this travel as an honors experience nor can we give you a grant without an
approved exemption.
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1. Abstract

Briefly describe the experience. What makes this experience personally meaningful? What goals do you have for this
experience? What is your timeline for this experience?
*If you are proposing an international experience, provide an itinerary.
**If you are developing this experience from an existing opportunity (class with a study tour, campus organization, co-op,
etc.) that is not already an honors seminar or pre-approved experience, how will you differentiate your experience from
what is already required of other students?
I am currently a nursing student and a member of the dedicated education unit (DEU) program, which entails me being
partnered one-on-one with a practicing nurse and working alongside him/her for their entire shift. I have been paired with
Bev Lanthin, a nurse at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center (UCMC). Over the course of my sophomore year
spring semester, I have worked with her and learned how to administer drugs, perform assessments, develop care plans,
communicate with patients and their families, give and receive patient reports, and offer basic patient care like hygiene
and comfort measures. As a student nurse, I have found that I am often so busy that I dont perform as much of the
basic care that I would like to do. This has prompted me to begin searching for additional practice and experience in the
form of a PCA (patient care assistant) job. As a patient care assistant, I will be helping the nurse by checking vital signs,
cleaning the patients, talking to the patients and keeping them and their families company when the nurses are busy, and
ensuring each person is comfortable and calm in a clean and friendly environment. My goals for this experience are to
become more comfortable in a hospital environment, gain patient care experience that will be useful for me as a student
and a nurse, and use this position and my time in the hospital to help me decide what specialty within nursing I want to
pursue.

Advisor Feedback
Must Include: Required Revisions: Effective:

Brief description of the experience

Personal connection to the experience

Identified goals for the experience

Timeline from start to finish

*Itinerary (international experiences only)

**Explanation of differentiated experience

from what is required of other students

2. Experience Advisor

Identify an experience advisor and provide their contact information. Explain why you chose this person and how you
plan to utilize your advisor for this experience.
Note: Advisor(s) should have knowledge or expertise in an area related to the experience. Honors advisors, undergraduate
students, and family members cannot be experience advisors.
My advisor for this experience is Professor Jean Heiskell. She is a current nurse, professor at the College of Nursing, and
a clinical instructor. She oversees the DEU program, and was part of the process of choosing me to be a part of it. As a
clinical instructor, she has led me through clinical experiences and paired me with the nurse who became my secondary
instructor later in the semester. She helped me through my first days at the hospital and watched my progress from day
one. I chose her as my project advisor because she continuously encourages me to dig deeper and understand the big
picture in nursing. This PCA experience and the research connection I have created from it are perfect opportunities to
work with her to deepen my understanding of the healthcare system and my future role as a nurse in it. She has watched
me perform as a student nurse, and has offered her help in both my project and figuring out my new role as a PCA. I plan
to meet with her periodically throughout the summer (she works at University of Cincinnati Medical Center) and stay in
contact with her through phone and email. At the end of the summer, I will meet up with her to discuss my results and
start preparing to share and present this information with others.
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Her contact information is:

Phone: (513)-218-7430
Email: heiskejn@ucmail.uc.edu

Advisor Feedback
Must Include: Required Revisions: Effective:

Experience advisor name and contact

information

Description of why advisor was selected

Specific plans to engage with advisor

3. Connection to Learning Outcomes

List 3 learning outcomes from any thematic area(s). Provide specific activities you plan to engage in to help you make
progress towards the chosen learning outcomes. Describe how you expect each activity to help your progress. Include an
estimated time commitment for those activities.
1. Motivate and collaborate effectively with others towards completion of shared projects or goals.
Nursing is a group effort that works only because of effective communication and delegation. As a PCA, I am
stepping out of the nursing role that Ive gotten used to while doing clinical rotations at the hospital and taking on
the specific workload and responsibilities of a patient care assistant. Nurses often delegate tasks to PCAs in the
hospital such as vital signs, bed sheet changes, measuring urinary output, and assisting with physical hygiene and
comfort measures. When a PCA is assigned a large number of patients, they can become overwhelmed, and
because nurses also have a high patient load, they may not realize the strain they are putting on their assistants. I
plan to improve communication and appropriate delegation by comparing my experience as a PCA with what I
know from working as a student nurse. I will write about these findings, and then present them to my nursing
professors and possibly the NSNA (National Student Nurses Association).

2. Discover new techniques to gain knowledge, consider options, make new connections, and ask questions.
When I am working at the hospital, I will be in the perfect position to see new procedures, watch nurses and
physicians perform tasks I have not been taught to do yet as a sophomore in nursing school (starting IVs and
drawing blood), and directly communicate with health professionals to ask questions and seek advice. Each day I
am working in the hospital, I will be seeing and doing new things. I will also have the ability to network and use
my connections to decide what specialty in nursing is right for me. It will be immeasurably beneficial for me to
have these sources of support and knowledge throughout my time in school and when I am looking for work post-
graduation. I plan to bring a list with possible procedures I am allowed to perform or watch and check them off
whenever I see them or do them myself. By the end of my time working there, I will have a list of the things I got
to experience.

3. Demonstrate an understanding of cultural diversity by acknowledging the impact of their own identity and the
experience of social norms, customs, or beliefs that are different from their own.
One of the core concepts of nursing practice is patient-centered care. This entails tailoring care for each patient as
an individual and treating them holistically, using their preferences, cultural identity, religious beliefs, and
customs. In class, I learn about the nursing practices clinical research has shown to be most effective for different
racial, ethnic, and religious groups. In practice, I have been able to apply some of this knowledge, but still have a
lot more to learn to provide optimal care for my patients in an individualized and respectful way. As a PCA, I will
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be gaining these experiences and will have time to talk to my patients to get their first-hand opinions and
recommendations. I will be able to share this information with the nurses on the floor, other PCAs, nursing
students, and even my professors. This will lead to an increase in understanding and thus, an improvement in the
patient-centered care that I give.

Advisor Feedback
Must Include: Required Revisions: Effective:

3 learning outcomes explicitly identified

from any thematic area(s)

Examples of activities and explanation of

how each will assist the progress towards
the chosen learning outcome

Estimated time commitment for each

activity

4. Academic Resources Connected to the Learning Outcomes

List 2-3 academic resources you plan to use. For each, describe how it connects to your learning outcomes and how you
hope that it will contribute to your learning during this experience. You must have at least one resource connected to each
learning outcome; a resource can satisfy multiple outcomes. Please include the title and author/creator for each resource.
Note: Academic resources are professional/academic works that can be used to assist your understanding of the topic.
Some examples are books, research journals, documentaries, or videos.
1. During my experience as a PCA, I will utilize the Nursing Central iPad app. This app is an Unbound Medicine
product and is available on the iPad, online, and on both apple and android phones. I have access to this app
through the College of Nursing and have used it during my clinical rotations as a student nurse. The Nursing
Central app is a comprehensive nursing resource that quickly provides information about drugs, diseases, labs,
tests, and the nursing process. It includes a nursing pocket guide, drug lists and medication interactions,
diagnostic testing procedures, and examples of care plans. I have searched the medications I administer my
patients when I am at clinical using this app. I have also used this app when creating my care plans and writing
nursing diagnoses. As a PCA, I will not be able to give medications, but the nursing diagnoses, labs, tests, and
nursing process information will be incredibly useful for me to optimize my patient care. Using the evidenced
based practice skills that are available to me will allow me to care for my patients individually, holistically, and
effectively. This app is directly related to the research thematic area, but is also related to the learning outcome I
chose, Discover new techniques to gain knowledge, consider options, make new connections, and ask
questions.
2. Another academic resource I will be utilizing is the book Health Assessment in Nursing, by Janet R. Weber and
Jane H. Kelley. I used this book during my Fundamental Concepts of Nursing class and lab, and still use it for my
clinical rotations at the hospital. This book includes detailed information about how to physically, mentally, and
socially assess patients and what to do if something is wrong. As a PCA, it is out of my scope of practice to
document assessments other than vital signs, but I still need to know what to look for and how to anticipate
something will go wrong with my patient. With the information in this book, I will be able to work on my
observatory health assessments and notify the nurse or physician at the onset of a problem before the patients
health deteriorates any further. The book is an excellent resource to have and may make it possible for me to
prevent adverse outcomes in my patients. It relates to the research thematic area and to the learning outcome of,
develop strategies to identify and respond to challenges and obstacles. Using this book, I will be able to
formulate plans to carry out when I notice a patients condition is worsening. The information will help me to
accurately identify problems and know what to do until help arrives.
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Advisor Feedback
Must Include: Required Revisions: Effective:

1-2 academic resources connected to the

learning outcomes

Title and author of each resource

Description of how resources will help

make progress towards learning outcomes
and execution of experience

5. On-going Reflection
The on-going reflection should help you process the experience and progress toward your chosen learning outcomes.
Describe your method for reflecting throughout the experience. Indicate specific reflection questions/topics you plan to
use to guide your reflective process.
Note: A variety of methods can be used for on-going reflection. Some examples are videos, drawings, blogs, songs, and
journals. Reflection topics to consider include your ideas/insights about the experience, connection to other areas of
involvement, and your progress towards the learning outcomes.
Throughout my experience, I plan to keep a check list of patient care activities. Each time I am able to perform one or
watch one, I will add a check mark. This will allow me to prove the importance of PCAs to the overall healthcare team
and will allow me to compare my experiences as a PCA to my experiences working as a student nurse. I will also journal
significant experiences that relate to the delegation and communication between nurses and PCAs; if I recognize a
communication error or problems with delegation, I will brainstorm ideas to correct this.

One of my main goals for this experience is to use my time as a PCA and as a student nurse to think of ways in which
communication between these two can improve.
I will ask questions such as:
Is there appropriate respect between the nurses and PCAs?
Are the nurses delegating too much work to the PCAs?
How can I use my experiences improve communication between nurses and PCAs?
Throughout the experience, I will work to answer these questions. I will be in contact with my nursing advisor for any
help I may need. I will also be in contact with nurses in my family and other faculty nurses I have met. Through them and
my time working as a student nurse in my clinicals, I will be able to see the nursing perspective and compare it to my own
perspective as a Patient Care Assistant.

Advisor Feedback
Must Include: Required Revisions: Effective:

Method for ongoing reflection

Reflection questions/topics clearly

specified

6. Sharing Your Learning

Describe how you plan to actively share what youve taken away from this experience with a targeted audience. Consider
signing up for the UHP Impact Forum held each April. Explain why you chose this specific audience.
Note: While social media can be an effective platform for sharing, only posting on your personal learning portfolio or
social media account(s) does not reach a targeted audience.
In addition to posting to my learning portfolio, I plan on uploading my results to my honors blog page
(oliviaspampinato.weebly.com). I will be meeting with my project advisor periodically during the summer to share my
findings and progress. At the end of the summer, I will meet with her to put it all together. After this, I will work with her
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and my other professors to implement my findings into the nursing curriculum in any way possible. I will be consulting
with Professor Jeanine Goodin, the advisor of SNA (Student Nurses Association), to see if I am able to present my
findings to this organization.

Advisor Feedback
Must Include: Required Revisions: Effective:

At least one method to actively share take-

aways/learning from the experience

A specific audience and why the audience

was selected

7. Budget (if applicable)

Provide an itemized budget and indicate your source for cost information.
*If you are engaged in an unpaid internship or research, please indicate the number of weeks and hours per week you
plan to participate.
The books and academic resources I am using are ones I already own, I bought the patient care devices like a stethoscope
and sphygmomanometer at the beginning of my sophomore year, and the only out of pocket expense is new scrubs. These
will be $75.00 or less.

Advisor Feedback
Notes: Required Revisions: Effective:

Detailed budget of expenditures with

sources to justify budget estimates

*Indicates the number of hours per week

and number of weeks of participation

THEMATIC AREA LEARNING OUTCOMES

Learning Outcomes for the Community Engagement Thematic Area:

By engaging in this thematic area, you will make progress towards learning how to
Identify and differentiate multiple ways to contribute towards the development or achievement of the communitys
goals.
Develop a thorough understanding of the world view, beliefs, experiences, self-consciousness, or history of
community members through collaboration.
Articulate the purpose of service on a social issue or public policy and how service mutually enhances individual
growth and the common good.
Explain how education, advocacy, mobilization, or public policy can influence social issues and transform
communities.
Learning Outcomes for the Creativity Thematic Area:
By engaging in this thematic area, you will make progress towards learning how to
Discover new techniques to gain knowledge, consider options, make new connections, and ask questions.
Explore a new creative competency/medium or seek new ways to engage an existing competency/medium.
Understand and optimize the use of people, technology, physical resources or community in a creative process.
Articulate the broader significance of a creative project and the value of its contributions.

Learning Outcomes for the Global Studies Thematic Area:

By engaging in this thematic area, you will make progress towards learning how to
Develop practical travel skills that promote safe, stimulating, and productive travel throughout your life.
Summarize the interconnectedness of geography, history, cultural traits and world issues.
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Articulate the interdependence of professional fields to address current and impending global issues such as
technology, the environment, human rights, or politics.
Demonstrate an understanding of cultural diversity by acknowledging the impact of their own identity and the
experience of social norms, customs, or beliefs that are different from their own.
Demonstrate a sense of empathy, respect, and appreciation for others to build meaningful cross-cultural
collaborations toward mutual growth and prosperity.

Learning Outcomes for the Leadership Thematic Area:

By engaging in this thematic area, you will make progress towards learning how to
3. Formulate and manage a shared vision and develop goals towards its achievement.
4. Motivate and collaborate effectively with others towards completion of shared projects or goals.
5. Develop strategies to identify and respond to challenges and obstacles.
6. Identify personal strengths and areas of growth and evaluate opportunities to maximize skills and abilities.
7. Synthesize the current trends related to a specific issue or field and evaluate how thought-leaders are currently
addressing them.

Learning Outcomes for the Research Thematic Area:

By engaging in this thematic area, you will make progress towards learning how to
Demonstrate the ability to locate, interpret, and critically evaluate primary sources appropriate to field.
Identify and apply appropriate methods to collect and organize data for analysis.
Analyze and interpret the meaning of results.
Produce dissemination appropriate to the field in order to share the results or impact of the research.
Articulate the broader significance of the research project and its relationship to other fields, research and ideas.