Personal Reflection

This reflection will discuss personal diffidence and how it has influenced my academic studies, including my practice within placement settings. Gibbs reflective cycle (Gibbs, 1998) has been utilised as it illustrates a clear structure for the process of reflection. To conclude this reflection will draw together the themes which have emerged and highlight a clear action for future learning that will be used in order to enhance my future practice.

When I arrived at the agency, the room was crowded and many people were waiting for their turned to be served at one of the several tables. The person that I interviewed for this assignment was Emily Hampshire, the coordinator of one of a program called 180. Emily has been with the agency for over a year and is currently the coordinator of the agency’s newest program. This program is a gang prevention and intervention program and was created for the local at-risk youth in an effort to prevent gang related crimes and help youth “change their life around”, as Emily mentioned. This program was created in collaboration with the local Police Department and the Mount Diablo Unified School District and in

Over the course of the semester I have learned a great deal about the field of psychology and how to best use the resources provided for me at The University of Southern Mississippi. From the class lectures to the psychology small groups all of these things have prepared me for my journey as a psychology major.

My Journey into social work thus far has been extremely challenging from the time I enrolled onto the Social Work programme. By this, I mean I have experienced a placement breakdown, which delayed my overall development. This led me to have a negative outlook on social work professionals. I also experienced high anxiety/delayed stress, within my final year of university, which brought on a whole host of physical symptoms, which has been difficult for me to express to others, and deal with personally. Positively, I have had two brilliant practice placements and gained a wealth of knowledge and skills. Therefore, I feel the above information is relevant for me to highlight, because it will give you a real feel of my journal to date.

According to Polit and Beck (2017), “the ultimate goal of research is to develop and expand knowledge” (p. 3). Through my education in the Doctorate of Nurse Practitioner program, I plan to expand on the knowledge I already have and develop new knowledge that will help me become a successful student and nurse practitioner. I was first introduced to the concept of research during my undergraduate nursing program. During the program, I took a class that taught the basic knowledge of research and how it is used in our daily practice. It was in this class that I learned about evidence-based practice studies and how to find articles that were based on nursing research. I have no professional experience being involved in a research project or completing research on my own. I have been a part of implementing evidence based practice (EBP) interventions at work. Some of the interventions included implementing the ambulatory blood pressure monitoring system, new practices for lab draws and ways to decrease infections in central lines.

It won’t always be easy, but it will always be worth it. These wise words are from my favorite teacher, my academic team coach, and an all-around great woman. At some point, without my realizing that it had happened, these words crept in and became my mantra. I worked hard to get where I am, and I’ll continue working hard, not because it is easy, but because I know that I will be better for it.

From a young age, I knew how I wanted everything that concerned me. When I had to do something, whether it be an assignment, task, or chore, I knew how I wanted it done. It was frustrating as I could not portray what I was thinking to anyone else. Nevertheless, I didn’t stop trying. It became easier when I grew older and I learned how to research, generate lists, and create vision boards. When I found out about this method of communication from my mother, I fell in love with it. She taught me to prepare, and moreover to be proud of productivity. I applied everything I had learned when the “new” iPad 4 came out four years ago. I believe in the power of planning.

Ms. Kim Ferguson Tannor came to talk to the class about her passion for her job as an Physician’s Assistant. It was interesting how she structured her presentation by talking about how to merge your passion and your purpose. Which is what we are slowly pursuing this semester. Ms. Tannor is a 42-year-old second generation American who grew up in Long Island, New York. In 1994, she went to Virginia State and graduated with a degree in Biology. Then she returned and graduated with a Master’s degree in Biology with a concentration in Biochemistry. I actually never knew that you could have a specific focus for Biology in graduate school. I thought the specializing came in medical school for Biology majors. She had the career goal of being a doctor at first. One of the first lessons she gave the class is how important accountability is. She had gotten caught up in the freedom that college offers and she wasn’t being a good student. She had been put on academic probation by the end of her first semester in college. But what was motivating to me is that she acknowledged that she did something wrong and got right back to work. I have admitted when I’ve messed up but usually I feel bad for myself for a period and I don’t get right to work. If she can mess up and bounce back, so can I. She also stressed that you may be letting someone else down who is looking up at you and you can’t do that. This is very true for me, I have two younger sisters and plenty of younger cousins who I know

The first four chapters reading were really helpful to understand more about yourself, self-worth, your personality type, your circle control, also help you understand about how people that you interact with react in a positive or negative way, and how to deal with different type of behaviors or personalities. I like all the truth of 1 to 4, but I picked truth #2, which explained about your circle control that contains 4-P personality style, specific self-worth, and external support system. Working with older people can be challenging because different residents/clients or staff may have different personalities and sometimes it is hard to approach them without knowing them or their personalities. However, the longer you work with them, the more you will be able to identify their personalities and able to approach them without a problem.

I found this exercise very helpful, reading the scores form each of the sections has given me a lot of insight into what I am good at, and what I can improve on in my field. I scored high in the adapting practice and in linguistics competence and health and health care disparities. To me, this shows me that I am good at communicating effectively in terms of making sure clients understand what options they have and how we can help them find the best decision which will benefit them the most. The results indicated that “Items contained in this…adapting such care to individual patients in the practice environment.” (National Center for Cultural Competence, 2). I have just recently experienced something similar to this, and I can see that even though I am at an internship, I can still see myself taking these things into my everyday life.

Growing up, I was never good at writing and struggled with it. In eighth grade, we had to write a paper on our superhero and I wrote about my mom. I saw everyone wrote two or three pages while I wrote one. I felt a bit weird about that and I knew it was not a good paper. Prior to sophomore year of high school, we had to read a book called Jane Eyre. I did not like reading and read only half the book and just looked up summaries online. I had Miss Figueroa for an English teacher that year, and I was so scared and nervous because she was a difficult teacher. We discussed the book, and then we wrote a rough draft essay about it. In October, we had to take a P.O.W. Exam on this book, which had three essay topics to choose from. I remember my rough draft was the same exact topic as the one on the exam, and I thought this is going to be easy. A few weeks later we got our results back, and it required a three to pass and I got lower than that. I made mistakes on grammar, my paragraphs were not consistent, and my introduction and thesis were not being well- written. This made me so sad because I could not graduate high school without passing this exam. We had to write in-class essay on novels we read and essays at home. I remember struggling to come up with topics to write about and forming ideas. It took me so long to finish these essays, and they were never well written. I was never good with timed essay tests as I felt like I was being rushed and had no time to check my work or

For each of us, there comes a time when we can look back and pinpoint the exact day that altered the course of our life, for me, one of those days was April 13, 2010. I was 14 years old when I fell off my bike and broke my elbow. After consulting multiple orthopedics, I was told I would never regain my range of motion, but with the help of a certified hand therapist, I was able to regain full range of motion and prove the doctors wrong. Months later I had surgery to reconstruct my elbow that had not healed properly, but again I was able to regain full range of motion thanks to my therapist. While the doctors were able to fix my arm, it was the therapists who were able to give me my quality of life back. It was at this moment that I knew I wanted to be a therapist. During my freshman year of college, I began to develop an ulnar claw which eventually led me to undergo ulnar nerve transposition surgery. After spending countless hours with a certified hand therapist I knew this was what I wanted to spend my life doing. I had been going to school with plans of applying to physical therapy school, but the experience I had recovering from ulnar nerve transposition led me to alter my course of study and transfer schools. Today no one would ever know that I had something wrong with my arm or hand other than the scars which motivate me and remind me of the impact an occupational therapist had on my life, and my ultimate goal; become an occupational therapist.

This semester I had a man in his mid-fifties who has a severe stutter. One long term goal that we worked on was having a more positive experience with stuttering, as well as difficult speaking situations. We have this goal to reduce the amount of negative thoughts he has about his speech, and to prevent him from avoiding speaking situations.

…The human body's complex anatomy is a phenomenal mechanism. After witnessing my grandfather’s health deteriorating due to a heart attack and cancer of the kidneys, I became aware of how patients and their families can be affected. This made me appreciate how a doctor and their team play such an important part in helping to relieve a patient.

When thinking of class discussions and readings, I do not have difficulty separating my emotions from the content. For the most part, I have not experienced any reaction from a text that elicits a decisive reaction other than empathy. While reflecting on my everyday life, I realized I do have an experience that is a trigger for me. It evokes emotions out of me regardless of how minimal the interaction is. Recently, I have been having more physical and emotional reaction when I see a police officer or their vehicle. Growing up, I was always weary of police officers. I can remember my mother joking that my father was always afraid of police officers. I dismissed my weariness as I grew older because I assume I had such a blatant reaction