Nursing Reflective Paper : Nursing

I define my philosophy of nursing within the three nursing domains of person, health, and environment. My goal is to communicate the importance of nursing as a knowledge-based career, depending not only on the nurse fulfilling her role but also on the patient’s compliance. A patient must learn to provide self-care at home in the same capacity as the nurse would provide care in the clinical setting. I discuss various subjects within nursing. I explain why I want to be a nurse, what I believe a nurse’s role is, the different domains of nursing, and where I believe nursing will be in the future. My philosophy demonstrates the interdependence of the nursing domains. You cannot fully evaluate a person without evaluating their health,

The nurse I chose to interview has been a family friend for a while, as she has worked closely with my mother for several years. She is the first nurse I met when I decided I was interested in going into the nursing field, and she is actually the person who encouraged me to apply to Truman State University’s nursing program. I was confident that she would be able to share her capacity of nursing knowledge and wisdom with me when I asked if I could interview her. I will expand on our interview which took place in her office at work throughout the next couple of pages, and to keep confidentiality, I will allude to her by her initials, J.W.

As my senior year here at Jersey College of Nursing moves quickly to its end, I reflect on how far I have come and what exactly my experience here at Jersey College of Nursing has meant to me.

This self-reflective paper is focused on what I’ve learned about myself this semester regarding my strengths, and weaknesses. Concentrating on areas of my professional practice that need improvement and discussing two goals I have created for my self, and how I plan on achieving them. This semester I have discovered I have two key strengths those being a dedication to the practical nursing program, and seeking help in the program when I need it. This trait is hopefully carrying through as a strength in my nursing career. However, I have many weaknesses to work on as a student and future nurse. Along with my shortcomings, there are fears I have looking into the future, into CPE 1 and term 2. Those are the fears of not being good enough in

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.

Hello Students, my name is Teresa Damien MS, APRN-BC. I have been a registered nurse for over a decade and currently practice as a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner at an academic institution clinically focused in addiction psychiatry. I have worked in multiple areas of nursing over my career prior to mental health that include medical-surgical nursing, respiratory nursing, hospice nursing, home care pedicatric nursing, and nursing education.

Starting the Registered Nurse (RN) to Bachelorette of Science in Nursing (BSN) program at Jacksonville University in June 2015 was a simple transition for me. I had graduated an Associates Degree in Nursing (ADN) program in December 2014 and became a licensed RN in January 2015. I had just gotten hired for my first nursing position the month prior to the start of class and had not yet started working. I was very much still in student mode. While this makes it a bit easier to learn and process information in a classroom setting, I had no real world experience to help guide me. Through the knowledge I have gained as a student at Jacksonville University I have become a competent and well-rounded nurse. I am able to quickly problem solve and utilize critical thinking to identify and rectify issues. I have even put together, and will be presenting, and presentation about nursing practice for staff members at the facility where I work.

This essay is a discussion about my experience during the first two weeks of my clinical placement in an older adult ward. My experiences will be demonstrated using the various nursing skills acquired thus far. The reflective account used is adopted from the work of Driscoll (2007) which splits the essay into three segments namely a) what happened, b) so what, (what were my feelings, what was good and what was wrong about the experience, c) now what, (if I find myself in that same situation what would I do differently).

In my area of nursing practice, I deal with patients or their power of attorney to choose the option of hospice. As Tornøe Danbolt, Kvigne, & Sørlie,(2015) stated “Nursing must provide more end of life care, due to the international trend of downsizing hospital units and cutting health care costs in secondary health care. Primary health care will increase to encounter dying patients’ spiritual and existential suffering” (p.2). Hospice care is a different kind of care a nurse provides. On my unit, as nursing professionals use scholarly articles to help us understand and improve our skills in these kind of patients. A nurse professional can utilize scholarly articles about hospice using a database. The two databases I used to find scholarly

This self-reflective paper focuses on what I’ve learned about myself this semester regarding my strengths, and weaknesses. Concentrating on areas of my professional practice that need improvement and discussing two goals I have created for myself, and how I plan on achieving them. This semester I have discovered I have two key strengths those being a dedication to the Practical Nursing Program, and seeking help in the program when I need it. Both being potential strengths in my nursing career. I have some weaknesses to work on as a student and a future nurse.

Based on the information, the patients major learning need is how to address the patients high pain level when she is at home. During my teaching, I explained to the patient that there are both pharmacological and non-pharmacological methods of managing pain. According to Cornelius, Herr, Gordon &Kretzer, “Coping with pain after surgery doesn't have to mean taking more prescription pain medication. Pain medication certainly has its place in pain management, but there are additional strategies that can help you deal with your surgery pain,” (p24). I focused my objectives for teaching on how to use prescribed medication, how to stay ahead of the pain, Alternative methods for pain management and how to avoid aggravating factors. Before teaching the patient, I made sure the patient's caregiver was in the room. This was because my patients mental state requires assistance in daily care. My patient is able to understand somethings but forgets often which is why it was important to have her husband and daughter in the room. When teaching I first started off with staying ahead of the pain. I emphasized the need to manage the pain before it get to unboreable which can result in more difficulty when managing pain which may lead in a need for more pain medication. Teaching was reinforced by giving the patients daughter a hand out that includes a chart on how to stay ahead of the patient’s pain. The nurse evaluated teaching by asking when medication should be given. The daughter replied “when mom says she’s in pain, we shouldn’t wait till it gets to a ten”. It was also mentioned the care givers that they should ask their mom if she is in pain. The next teaching was done during discharge on the prescribed pain medication for the patient. The patient was prescribed five mg of oxycodone every 6 hours and acetaminophen three times a day. The nurse emphasized the fact that the acetaminophen should not exceed 4 grams a day. The nurse gave the family a hand out on the dangers of excessive use of acetaminophen. The nurse also taught the family to look out for acetaminophen in another pill they would give their mother. The nurse evaluated teaching by asking the husband what he should look out for , the husband mentioned to monitor

I am sitting at my desk pondering the lessons learned during the past eight weeks of my life. It is unbelievable to think that this class was actually going to be enjoyable since the study of theory is usually met with an ugh and a sigh by the student and those they tell of their coursework. Much to my surprise, I actually enjoyed the material presented.

For my reflection paper I interviewed a coworker from each of my jobs. I interviewed JM, an EMT for a private EMS company, and I interviewed DS, an emergency room nurse. JM has been in the field for four years and has worked in the city and in a more rural area. Even though he has not spent many years in the field, he has noticed changes just the same as more seasoned veterans. DS has been in the field for 20 years and has worked in rough urban emergency departments and small city emergency departments. She has seen many changes over the years and was thrilled to be interviewed for this class assignment. I picked these two for my candidates hoping to receive different input from each. I was surprised to find that the two had similar views on the topic.

I returned to work today and I had the pleasure of caring for Mrs. Reyes again. After reviewing her chart, I noticed that she should be returning home soon. There was no better time than the present to begin talking to her about how she will manage herself at home. The first topic I wanted to discuss with her is, when she will take her Lasix. Before I went to see her, the PCA informs me that she took her vitals already, and reports them as 86/50 with a pulse of 52. If this was the case, I would hold her Digoxin and Lasix and inform the physician. I decided that I would prefer to retake her vitals since I was not there to witness the PCA doing so. I entered the room, foamed in, introduced myself and identified Mrs. Reyes. I then told her that I had to check her vital signs to ensure that they were within range to give her the morning medication. Luckily, her vitals were within range so I was able to administer both the digoxin and Lasix. I also figured that it would be best to talk about her Lasix when I administered it to her this morning. I explained that I was giving this medication to her in the morning so she did not have to get up all night to use the bathroom. I told her, she should continue to take her Lasix in the morning when she gets home as well. She told me that she will try her best to remember when she goes home. I told her that if she would like, I could provide her with a pill box that separates her medication by day and time of day as well.

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.”