In the process of my capstone project in improving emergency room $($ER$)$ services at Mercy Health Hospital, Cincinnati, Ohio, the researcher experienced some challenges. The most challenging aspect was when the researcher was searching for a receptor for her project. The researcher had to come out of her comfort zone to ask her coworkers, managers, friends, and others if they could serve as a preceptor for her project. It took a long search before getting agreement from a doctor who works in the night shift at Mercy Health Hospital to work with the researcher as her preceptor.

Another challenge was meeting the $70-$hour requirement of the internship due to the preceptor$$s limited work hours. For example, the researcher works from $8$:$40$am to $5$:$40$pm and her preceptor works from $8$pm to $6$:$00$am$.$ Additionally, the researcher was sometimes confused about the clarity on the Handbook$$s guidelines for the internship project. For example, sometimes it is difficult to access information pertaining to capstone or portfolio. Finally, the staff at the Mercy Health Hospital of internship sometimes perceived the presence of the researcher as slowing down their workflow.

Balancing a full$-$time job with the demanding night schedule of the preceptor was an additional challenge for data collection. This was due to the triage unit. Sometimes when the emergency unit gets very crowded, the nurses and doctors at the triage unit takes in those patients with severe illnesses to the emergency rooms right away. This made it difficult to track those patients and it took a long time before their names appeared on the screen to record the data. Even though the researcher experienced these challenges, the staff and the management at the facility were very supportive.

The researcher learned many lessons from the project. First, the results revealed that wait time in emergency care is not necessarily correlated with the number of doctors and nurses available. The resource capacity such as the number of beds that the emergency unit has may be a factor that contributes to a prolonged wait time in emergency care. Second, the capstone project has taught the researcher how to format a research paper, especially using APA citations and reference styles. This capstone was not just doing a project. Rather, it is a life$-$changing experience. It has given the researcher more insight which will help her as she moves on in the future for her managerial or administrative position. Overall, there have been challenges along the way but a wonderful experience at Mercy Health Hospital. $1.$ Discuss what you think about this post