Reflection of Nursing Knowledge

Introduction

It has been a great journey acquiring the Bachelors in nursing degree in the university. This essay aims to reflect on the nursing journey in the university focusing on the knowledge, attitude, and skills that enabled my achievement of the competencies required in the nursing field. I will then pick for a review one assignment that I feel aligns with my learning in the course.

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It is very complicated to clearly define the knowledge that was acquired during the nursing studies because as Benner (1984) rightly put it; nursing education is "embedded in practice." However, there are several skills and some knowledge that can be personally attributed to the mentorship imparted in the nursing course. The first skill that has been given on me from my nursing course is that of compassion and kindness. I was taught that a nurse ought to be listening and caring towards the sick or the injured. Compassion can be shown by being empathetic to the suffering and pain of the patients. This compassion plays a critical role in the healing process of a patient. It is also in line with the competency requirements among nurses of Management of nursing care where a competent nurse is supposed to come up with an assessment of the health consumer care that should meet the needs of a customer guided by the knowledge of nursing and research that is credible. (Blais, Hayes, Kozier, & Erb, 2015). A nurse must at all times also be kind to the colleagues as he or she is kind to the patient.

Therapeutic and interpersonal communications among the patients and the staff at the health institution fall under the critical competence requirements of Interpersonal Relationships. Consequently, the nursing course has taught me about the importance of communication at the place of work as the nurse plays a crucial role in inter-linking the communication between the family of the patient and the workers. The nurse, therefore, must be able to communicate clearly and effectively for the smooth handling of patient requirements.

Ethics is another critical skill that is one of the requirements for a competent nurse in professional responsibility. A competent nurse needs to have knowledge and skills that are required. This includes having a sound judgment in every situation and being responsible for his or her actions (Parahoo, K., 2014)... To be competent professionally, therefore, the nursing course taught me the ethics skills to ensure that patients are handled in a dignified manner. Professional responsibility also calls for the skill of attention to detail. A nurse must always be alert to the details to make a right judgment. Any misjudgment may be fatal and professional responsibility competence requires that a nurse is held accountable for every decision that he or she makes in the line of duty (Morton, Fontaine, Hudak & Gallo, 2017).

Adaptability is an essential skill required by a nurse that I was taught. Adaptability by a nurse means a nurse must be flexible to the demanding work schedules of nursing. There are cases where nurses are summoned to the health facility to work at odd hours in case of an emergency or any other reason. A nurse must be ready to oblige to a call on duty even if the notice is short. The last skill acquired at the university is the skill of thinking critically. A nurse needs to think critically about difficult and complex situations to help in the decision making of that situation. The above skills have helped and molded me into a better professional nurse (Davis & Kimble, 2011).

A competent nurse ought to have excellent organizational skills. During every shift, every nurse on duty is given several patients to handle. A good nurse should be able to organize himself or herself in the manner that all patients under his care are attended to appropriately. There are also emergency cases where a nurse is required to handle some more patients than those handled in regular shifts. During this emergency period, a nurse's organization skills will help in making sure that all patients receive attention. The lack of organization skills will create chaos in the hospital in the case of an emergency as all patients will be crying for attention (Brown, Wickline, Ecoff & Glaser, 2009).

Stress management is the ability to remain composed and sober in the case of a stressful situation. Most of the time, nurses do encounter horrible and terrifying situations in the line of duties. There are many cases especially in the emergency wing where a sight of patients with mutilated bodies is common. Nurses may also have to make do with violent patients who may be having a mental problem. In all these cases, nurses have to attend to such kind of patients. These scenes do live some permanent scars in the minds of nurses as they are horrible. A nurse they need to have the mental capability of withstanding this kind of depressing images in their minds. To be able to achieve this, a nurse should be able to have stress management skills and be willing to undergo regular guidance and counseling.

Dedication and passion is another core skill that if one does not possess it, then it is unnecessary to be a nurse. Nursing is a calling that someone needs to. It is a very challenging and demanding job that is not for the faint-hearted. A competent nurse needs to be both dedicated and passionate about his work. This work requires going out of your way to serve the community. Therefore, one needs to do it from the bottom of his heart and not just for material gain. There are moments where nurses are deployed to high-volatile areas or remote areas with the inferior infrastructure to work there. In the case where a nurse is not passionate about his or her work, he or she may find the assignment to be tough and punishing and thus may end up not serving the community as it is demanded of a nurse (Hamdan-Mansour, Othman & Yacoub, 2010).

There are several attitudes that I was taught that they are required of a nurse. One such attitude is respect for human life, dignity and has respect for the rights of other individuals. All nurses handle human life in their line of duties. It should be noted that human life is a right that can never be taken. Nurses should, therefore, have an attitude that respects the sanctity of human life. They should handle a patient with an attitude of saving his life and not ending it. As they are handling the patient also, they should accord that patient the dignity that the patient deserves. A patient should not be handled like an animal in a disrespectful manner. A nurse also ought to have respect for the rights of the patients and other staff. This includes a right to privacy where the medical condition of a patient should not be exposed to the outside world unprofessionally. A nurse also needs to have a positive attitude when it comes to the participation of health promotion and education activities from the local level to the national level. This kind of attitude helps in the government quest to have health awareness in the communities that may prevent many diseases from occurring (Potter, Perry Hall & Stockert, 2009).

Much as knowledge is imparted in practice, I gained some during the study including how the Information Technology plays a critical role in the nursing field. I also learned much about health care policies and how the healthcare system works.

Conclusion

Finally, my best representation of my learning course was the assignment that I was given by the professor to do. The assignment was about cancer, its causes symptoms, and treatment. In my presentation, I had argued that one of the causes of cancer was the use of cell phones. However, the professor commented that while it was true that cancer was caused by genetic mutations, the type of frequency energy emitted by mobile phones is too low to damage the genes in the body. This comment by the professor helped me in the management of cancer conditions during my health promotions (after Camacho, 2012).

References

Camacho, J. (2012). Causes of Cancer. Molecular Oncology Principles and Recent Advances, 33.

Blais, K., Hayes, J. S., Kozier, B., & Erb, G. L. (2015). Professional nursing practice: Concepts and perspectives (p. 530). NJ: Prentice Hall.

Brown, C. E., Wickline, M. A., Ecoff, L., & Glaser, D. (2009). Nursing practice, knowledge, attitudes and perceived barriers to evidencebased practice at an academic medical center. Journal of advanced nursing, 65(2), 371-381.

Davis, A. H., & Kimble, L. P. (2011). The essentials of baccalaureate education for professional nursing practice. Journal of Nursing Education, 50(11), 605.

Hamdan-Mansour, A. M., Othman, E. H., & Yacoub, M. I. (2010). Knowledge and nursing practice of critical care nurses caring for patients with delirium in intensive care units in Jordan. The Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 41(12), 571-576.

Morton, P. G., Fontaine, D., Hudak, C. M., & Gallo, B. M. (2017). Critical care nursing: a holistic approach (p. 1056). Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

Parahoo, K. (2014). Nursing research: principles, process, and issues. Palgrave Macmillan.

Potter, P. A., Perry, A. G., Hall, A., & Stockert, P. A. (2009). Fundamentals of nursing (Vol. 38). St. Louis, Mo, USA: Mosby Elsevier.