Nurse Mentor Interview : Nurses

For the majority of nurses working within the field of modern medicine, one of the most difficult tasks associated with the job must be maintaining the tenuous balance between the pull of professional ambition and honoring the responsibility owed to their current role. Nursing remains one of the most stratified occupations in terms of recognized qualification, and a wide disparity exists between the positions of Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) and Registered Nurse (RN) in terms of both experience and education. While standards vary from state to state, individual LPNs may be required to complete many of the same duties as their RN counterparts, including the administration of intravenous fluids, the withdrawal of blood for testing, and other crucial aspects of inpatient care. Despite the similar set of skills possessed by LPNs and RNs, the latter position commands a greater level of prestige and a significantly higher salary within the nursing field, and because of this many qualified LPN's aspire to attain the rank of RN in order to better their personal and professional lives. As a working LPN beginning the transition to future RN career, I have encountered many difficulties and obstacles which I feel will only strengthen my resolve and crystallize my ambitions. During the extensive reading required to gain the knowledge needed to work as an RN, a statement made by the authors of LPN to RN Transitions: Achieving Success In Your New Role resonated deeply with me, and I

This is Ziying Tan again. I called the nurse recruitment and they told me that you guys are still interviewing people. I am extremely interested in this New Grad Nurse Position and I would like to start my nursing career at UCDMC. UCDMC is one of a few hospitals in California received Magnet recognition, which the professional and high quality nursing care inspires me to become a part of the team. It will be an excellent opportunity for a new grad like me to receive trainings from the best experienced nurses. I also want to let you know that I will be out of the country for two weeks. Please email me if the result is out/ if you need more information about me. Thank you very much and you have a wonderful day!

I have worked in every area of the hospital and nursing homes in my nineteen years of clinical practice as a nurse. I have excelled and enjoyed the care that I have provided over the years. I have been a charge nurse wherever I have worked and enjoyed brainstorming and critically thinking through what needed to be done for a patient when they were not doing well. I have prevented many code blues and have been a preceptor to many excellent nurses.

Our healthcare system is ever evolving, remarkably changing the sphere of nursing practice. The roles of Advanced Nurse Practice practitioners are expanding, taking up a multitude of roles across a diversified healthcare specialties. Advance Nurse Practice practitioner stands as leader in this comprehensive profession bridging the gap in management and clinical aspect of care (McDermott & Morant, 2010), reflecting the complexity of culture, organization and practice setting (Hyrkas & Dende,2008) to improve the quality of patient care. This paper is about the interview with a Certified Nurse Practitioner. The Certified Nurse Practitioner interviewed is from the Hematology/Oncology Department in one of the university affiliated hospitals in Chicago. The purpose of the interview is to learn about the competencies needed to successfully perform the various roles of a Certified Nurse Practitioner in this complex health system. The rationale of the interview process is to give an opportunity as a graduate student to “assimilate primary care competencies into specialty nurse practitioner practice that exemplify professional value, scholarship, service, and culturally global awareness” (Chamberlain College of Nursing, 2014) that can be advantageous for my professional development. The interview showed the importance of knowledge of competencies appropriately applied in practice essential in the functions and roles of a Certified Nurse Practitioner within the scope of practice for

As Finkelman (2006) stated, “Mentoring, and important career development to that can be used by nurses any type of set or specialty, can be used to develop the critical leadership skills needed by nurses. All successful leaders have had mentors are our mentors” (Finkelman,2006, p. 390).

We had the pleasure of interview a highly skilled Clinical Nurse Educator Darren Page, who currently works at Spaulding Hospital and has been there for the past two years. He has more than eight years of experience as a Clinical Nurse Educator at several healthcare facilities in different states. During the interview he mentioned some of his primary duties in the hospital: besides acting as a resource for all professional and ancillary staff, he implements nursing education programs, provides orientation for newly hired staff, evaluates competency and identifies team or individual performance to assist those unable to meet competency expectations. He explained that he also spends his day assessing staff satisfaction, patient quality indicators, researching best practices in order to promote evidence-based nursing practice, designing interventions and creating policies, guidelines and protocols to improve outcomes. Moreover, his exceptional communication skills made the interview a memorable event, which has provided us many insights.

The article by Bally Jill (2007) identifies that nursing leadership can use mentoring culture to achieve professional and career development in nursing, and increase the quality of care given, especially for acute care nurses. This is because the article finds that nurses often have low morale, heavy workloads, high patient acuity, apathy towards professional collegial support, and reduced resources. The article identifies that mentoring in

For my interview, I spoke with one of the Nurse Practitioners (NP) that I interact with while working my shift at the hospital. I will call her Terri Smith because although I asked to use her quotes in my paper, I did not think to ask for permission to use her actual name. Where I work, many of our internal medicine physicians are hospitalists. During the night, they are covered by the umbrella of Quest Care. There are several NPs that work under the afore mentioned physicians and are there, on-call, when needed for their clinical expertise. It is nice, because even though I can’t develop much of a relationship with the doctors whose patients I work so hard to take care of, I get to have the opportunity to grow strong bonds with the NPs that I see almost every shift.

Nursing can be a demanding career, but the benefits far much outweigh the challenges. Most importantly, it’s the rewards it offers by allowing an opportunity to make a difference in another person’s life through the provision of care when they need it. Just as Patricia Benner theorized in her book “Novice to Expert,” nursing encompasses both educational knowledge and extensive clinical experience acquired throughout one’s career. This far, I continue to acquire knowledge and clinical knowhow which will promote proper and efficient care to patients. Since I began practicing one year ago in a long-term healthcare facility, I have interacted with patients, families, physicians and other members of the healthcare team to coordinate patient’s care which has enabled me to gain confidence in myself. While I cannot deny that it was difficult to transition from a student to a licensed nurse, I learnt to overcome these challenges and focus on my strengths. Practicing as an LPN has provided a platform to learn and gain experience even though the duties and responsibilities are limited by the scope of practice.

On August 2015, I started the RN-BSN program with the Transition to Professional Nursing as my first course. I took one class at the time because I was working as a full time nurse at the same time. I did not take a break and started a new class each start date because I wanted to complete this program as soon as possible. The journey has been a long, hard road and the stress was constant and many times I felt that I could not complete it; it has been a difficult but very satisfying journey.

What are the responsibilities of this individual/role? As a DON I’m responsible for quality of care the organization deliver to our patients. Also I’m responsible for creating health work environment and to empower my staff. Another responsibility is budgeting in nursing department, also I

A nurse can assume different roles in either clinical setting, education or in any field that he/she may choose. Whatever roles she/he decides to consider, Master’s education will provide the necessary training and preparation. This preparation will help the graduate to fully understand the higher level practice and method of nursing.

Increased quality of patient care and outcomes, preceptorship, mentoring, and coaching are all required for the newly hired nurses. These will enhance their nursing skills and competence to deliver

This was something I had trouble with in the first few days of the placement and challenged me more than I thought. Once I was able to get past that I found areas of the placement that would help me in the long run if I was able to seize the opportunity that was presented. In some areas community nursing is very similar to nursing in the hospital and in others it couldn’t be more different. Once I found these areas and got over the initial shock of the difference in settings I was able to transfer my knowledge from the hospital to the community where applicable and I was able to pick up the information and skills that I lacked in the

Mentoring has been established in a variety of fields for many years. Within nursing, the term ‘mentor’ denotes “A nurse, midwife or specialist community public health nurse who facilitates learning and supervises and assesses students in a practice setting”, (Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) 2005). The essay will explore the role of the mentor in the field of nursing, with personal reflection on the authors experience as a mentor in my current role as a community mental health nurse (CMHN). The mentor-mentee learning relationship will be explored and the application of teaching and learning strategies will be examined.