Nurse Journal Entry Paper

Nurse practitioners are advanced practice registered nurses who have received special courses and training. They usually work closely with doctors and can perform many high-level primary care tasks. They often specialize in specific types of practice such as pediatrics, psychiatry, or obstetrics. Some establish private practices; however, most work in doctors' offices, hospitals, or neighborhood health centers. Their duties often include taking detailed medical histories and performing complete physical exams, providing diagnoses and recommending treatment plans, treating common medical conditions, illnesses, and injuries, prescribing limited medications, and counseling patients and families. They also care

The purpose of the nursing practice field experience is to enhance leadership and research skills; identify shortcomings in policies, procedures or processes; and improve the current processes to ensure optimal patient-centered, healthcare delivery through the use of up-to-date evidence-based resources.

The concept of nurse residency programs is not by any means a new concept. Programs have been grounded on Benner’s theory of novice to expert. Benner established the notation that nurses develop skills and understanding of job skills over time through an education also with hands on experiences. She noted a nurse passes through five levels of proficiency: novice, advanced beginner, competent, proficient, and expert and was generally reached only after years of gaining experience as a practicing nurse. A nurse residency can facilitate new nurse graduates to transition smoothly through the levels and sometimes even more quickly. As a new graduate a nurse residency program is very appealing, not only does it help mentor you through novice period but also helps develop competent nurses for the organization.

When I arrive to the Trauma ICU 4800 unit, all of the nurses were already being followed by other students. The nurse in charge had me follow several different nurses, so I was able to observed several different patient cases. The first patient had received a triple bypass open-heart surgery. The patient had received a creatinine blood test. The patient had a dialysis machine next to them, which was used to function as the kidneys since the patient’s kidneys were not functioning correctly. Also, the patient’s body temperature was lowered from having a taken cool liquids so the nurses were keeping him warm with a bair hugger, which was a machine that helped regulate the patient's’ body temperatures.

The Salary of an RN is about $36.94 per hour, but the work schedule of a nurse is crazy. Nurses never really get a break especially floor nurses. I have talked to quite a few nurses and they have said that since you don’t truly get a break you tend to gain weight do to constantly eating/snacking. The education needed to be a Registered Nurse would be a Bachelor Degree which is a four year process. To be a Registered Nurse or RN you will need no training. On the job you will administer basic health care which is a temporary health coverage program for low-income, uninsured United States citizens or permanent legal residents of Contra Costa County. As an RN you will being giving patients intravenous medications. An intravenous

I have scheduled an interview and time to observe a nurse leader with the Director of Nursing (DON) for the Virginian Nursing and Rehab facility in Fairfax, Virginia for Thursday October 2, 2014 at 7:30am. I plan on spending a full eight-hour shift with the nurse leader observing the following three leadership activities: 1) Observing her making rounds on the units 2) Observing and or participating in a nursing leadership meeting and 3) Observing the facility’s interdisciplinary team meeting.

The health care industry is experiencing a surge in the number of baby-boomers needing health care and increased demands on the physicians providing the care. This trend has made the role of Advanced practice providers more important (cite). It is imperative to understand the differences and similarities in the advanced practice provider roles as it pertains to healthcare. This paper will identify specialty nursing roles including advanced practice registered nurses (APRN). It will further compare and contrast the advanced practice nurse (APN) and physician assistant (PA) roles in practice.

The second week of my preceptorship brought many new experiences for me, and I can honestly say that each day I spend with my preceptor is better than the last. This week I focused on time management of a full patient load with continued documentation practice as well as admission and discharge procedures. I’ve had brief experiences in my past rotations assisting with discharge teaching and admission assessments however I have never been able to fully take charge and complete the process from start to finish, so this was a great learning opportunity for me.

As nurses we had the opportunity to care for all varieties of patients. I was trained to be a surgical open heart nurse and have had the privilege to care for these patients for the last seven years. As I developed in my nursing abilities I was asked to precept new graduate nurses as well as nurses new to the unit. Serving in the capacity of preceptor and teacher is a role that I love.

The national league for nurses defines critical thinking in the nursing process as “a discipline specific, reflective reasoning process that guides a nurse in generating, implementing, and evaluating approaches for dealing with client care and professional concerns” (Kozier, 2008). This definition is imperative to help a nursing student learn how to think in terms of nursing care. Nursing students must achieve a comprehensive understanding of critical thinking in order to understand the nursing process. The purpose for this paper is for nursing students to learn how to use the nursing process, how to properly document their findings and assessments, and correctly implement APA formatting in a formal paper.

The nurse manager I selected to interview is a Baccalaureate degree nurse and has attended several in-house training sessions related to her position within the hospital. She attended Lenoir Rhyne University to obtain her BSN and has been employed with the institution for 13 years and has been in nursing for nearly 20 years. She is currently certified as a Certified Emergency Nurse (CEN) and is also a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner. The Hospital that she is employed with is a private hospital she manages a 15 bed emergency department and 6 bed express care facility, which also holds several involuntary commitments for several hours at a time waiting on placement.

The orientation process for new hires lasts six weeks. The new nurse attends nursing orientation for one week and then is assign a preceptor on the unit for each shift. The DPCS introduces the new employee to their preceptor. This nurse works three weeks on the day shift, one week on the evening shift and one week on the night shift working with both medically acute rehabilitation patients and surgical patients. Nurses receive extra days of their orientation with patients that the nurse has limited clinical experience such as a nurse with postoperative experience will work more with the medically acute rehabilitation patients to practice new skills. For new graduates their orientation is individualize and can last from 8-16 weeks.

So many people say saving lives takes hard work and extensive training, but are they really dedicated to do the work it takes. Medical school takes hard work and so much time to do the work as being a nurse. Being a nurse you have to have the heart and the great skills to be the best care giver you could be to a patient in need for help. Not only are you impacting someone else life but you are also impacting yourself with the great benefits they offer you, the way the patients acknowledge you by your hard work. Nurses make sure they have the care they need. Nursing is one of the most longest working shifts in the medical field you will ever experience.

When a huge, ancient tree falls onto the forest floor, it can become a “nurse log,” or a tree that shelters and raises young trees, just like a nurse cares for young children. When the log lands, a space opens for sunlight to enter the forest, and then seeds land on the bark, later springing up to reach the light. To develop beneath the sun, these young plants also need food, which the old tree’s bark offers. Hemlock trees, which often grow on nurse logs, reach their roots around the nurse log, like children wrap their arms around a parent. Over time, the nurse log breaks down, disappearing into the soil, but it still leaves its shape beneath the roots of the sprouts. When the young trees are fully grown, they look as if they are standing on

The nursing profession has been around for a very long time. Through many changes and reforms, it has drastically evolved into the nursing profession we have today. Nurses have an important role within the healthcare industry in the treatment and medical care of the sick. These trusted healthcare professionals continue to make up the largest majority of the healthcare field, as well as the fastest growing occupation. Nursing is a job that allows people to not only care for the sick but also to experience, learn and further their interest in the human body. This course has definitely provided me an insight to the roots of the profession I would like to pursue. I think it is important to know the history of nursing to understand fully on the problems that are affecting the profession. I believe that we cannot effectively address important issues without a foundation of historical knowledge. In other words, by examining the nursing history, I will be able to appreciate my important role as a nurse in the healthcare system. The topics I will be including in my reflection are the works of Florence Nightingale, the affects of World War II, the challenges of Filipinos aspiring to be nurses, and excerpts in Chapter 10 of “A History of American Nursing.”