Professional Aspirations

          I am currently a Neonatal Intensive Care Registered Nurse and absolutely love the opportunity I have been blessed with to care for such tiny lives.  I have definitely learned valuable information throughout the Bachelor of Science in nursing program that will benefit my nursing career immensely.  I will continue to increase my knowledge by reviewing evidence based practice and completing continuing education credits. I plan on becoming certified as a lactation consultant and then as a lactation specialist in the near future. I currently belong to the National Association of Neonatal Nurses, which grants me the opportunity to be part of a change in nursing.

Capstone Literature Review

Capstone Literature Review Link

Outcome 7

           Outcome 7 focuses on integrating professional standards of moral, ethical, and legal conduct into the care of persons, families, groups, communities, and populations.  The four main classes that helped me achieve this outcome were Leadership/Management, Professional Nursing Roles, Transcultural Nursing, and Ethics. During the Transcultural Nursing class I completed an assignment pertaining to the similarities and differences of the American Nursing Association’s Code of Ethics and the ICN’s Code of Ethics. Throughout the Leadership/Management class and the Professional Nursing Roles class I spent time focusing on the six roles of nursing practice and what it means to have morals and be in moral distress. Most importantly, the Ethics class helped cement the foundation and value of nursing ethics by multiple assignments pertaining to abortion, vaccines, adolescents, organ allocation, long term care patient dignity, beneficence and nonmaleficence, mental health, stereotyping, biases, “us vs. them” thinking, appropriate use of translators, and ethical culturally competent care.

            The six roles of nursing practice include sentry, healer, guide, teacher, collaborator, and leader. There are also many qualities an ethical nurse possesses including moral integrity, honesty, truthfulness, moral courage, advocacy, power, and culturally sensitive care. In my current and future nursing role I will uphold the qualities of an ethical nurse and practice the six roles of nursing daily. Currently, working as a NICU RN I am exposed to moral and ethical decisions constantly due to caring for high risk infants and their families who may have extremely hard decisions to make regarding their infant’s future. Not only am I around ethical dilemmas on a daily basis, I am also subject to moral distress due to attachment to the infants or struggling with the decision family members have had to make for their little one. I will remember to provide parents with support, guidance, and needed information regarding difficult decisions and respectfully accept their decisions. I will care for infants and their families appropriately without bias or “us vs. them” thinking.

 Outcome 7 Assignments Link

Outcome 6

           I feel that most of the classes during the BSN course have helped me achieve outcome six, which states manage the direct and indirect care of individuals, families, groups, communities, and populations to promote, maintain, and restore health.  The leadership management class definitely taught me the skills I need to indirectly affect the care of patients by teaching coworkers or employees protocols and patient care knowledge.  However, I believe that as a floor nurse I benefited more from the transcultural nursing and community nursing class during the BSN program in regards to managing the direct care of individuals and communities.  The knowledge gained during these classes enable me to provide more culturally sensitive care to all patients I have the pleasure of taking care of.

            For instance during the transcultural nursing class I read and wrote multiple discussions pertaining to the cultural practices of laboring women, how gender roles are affected by cultural background, child rearing techniques and practices specific to different cultures, and ways to better mental health care for diverse populations.  The preceding knowledge has made me more “available” to my patients because I can relate to them by understanding their culture, which enables me to manage and provide quality care for each and every one of them.  I also learned how to complete a cultural assessment and the importance of obtaining one for each patient.

            The idea to provide care to a diverse population is one of the main focuses of community-based nursing.  During the community nursing class I completed an accurate windshield survey and community assessment on the population of Las Vegas.  From the results of the windshield survey I designed a project that could be implemented to help decrease teenage pregnancy in Las Vegas.  I realized that I have the ability and know how to implement this project, which would result in directly managing a part of the Las Vegas community to promote health.

            Outcome 6 Assignments Link

Outcome 5

          I feel I gained the majority of my communication techniques during the Leadership/Management class during the BSN program. Of course the leadership/management project helped improve my communication abilities due to the fact that I had to give a presentation to my managers and describe, using assertive yet appropriate communication, ways they could improve their leaderships style.  During the Leadership/Management class I also wrote a discussion about the NCSBN’s 5 Rights of Delegation, which include the right task, circumstance, person, direction and communication, and supervision.  Without delegation and teamwork between coworkers the accuracy of the plan of care and actual quality of patient care would suffer.  I also wrote an essay during this class pertaining to the many strategies that can be utilized for overcoming communication barriers including the use of “I” statements, repeat back, enhancing listening skills, and noticing nonverbal signals. During the Professional nursing class I was taught more communication techniques especially the importance of avoiding preconceived ideas and assumptions, which is extremely pertinent when working in healthcare in order to avoid stereotyping or bias so that patient care does not suffer.  

            When delegating I will always double check that the task has been completed, as this is the most important part of delegation.  I will also make sure those I delegate to understand the specifics of the task completely and will reiterate to them the importance of letting me know when the task has been completed.  I plan on utilizing the many communication strategies I have learned throughout the ADN and BSN program in order to work effectively with my coworkers and to provide exceptional patient care.  I remember a quote about teamwork from reading the text for the clinical portion of the Leadership/Management class which stated, “The delivery of compassionate quality care requires a commitment by all members of the organization within all clinical discipline to accept responsibility for establishing and maintaining healthy interpersonal relationships,” (2009, Koloroutis, p 5).  I will remember that communication is essential to establishing this relationship.

Koloroutis, M. (2009). Relationship based care: A model for transforming practice. 

(11^th ed). Minneapolis, MN: Creative Health Care Management.

Outcome 5 Assignments Link

Outcome 4

          I, like many other classmates, do not feel that I understand healthcare policy to the full extent, but hope that I gain a better understanding by participating in the assignments and discussions for the BSN Policy class that I am in this semester. I do believe that every area of nursing is impacted by policy, financial obligations, Medicare, Medicaid, regulatory acts and organizations and I am aware of the importance of understanding the basics of those previously mentioned.  Also, most of the BSN classes have discussed certain aspects of healthcare policy and regulatory bodies.  I spent some time learning about the Affordable Care Act and how to avoid malpractice claims during my Professional Nursing Roles BSN class.  OSHA and HIPAA are the two acts that have been discussed on multiple occasions during all classes and I know that I will continue to learn more about them at my current place of employment.  During my Community Health BSN class I completed readings and discussions about multiple acts including Public Health Service Act, Civil Rights Act, Social Security Act, and Family and Medical Leave Act.  Recently in the Policy class I critiqued the organization of and information provided in one policy and procedure, which was an informative assignment.  I did not understand the details pertinent to a policy and procedure manual.

            I joined a nursing association in hopes of using my “nursing voice” more than I have had the opportunity to in the past.  Unfortunately school gets the best of me and learning about the politics of nursing and healthcare is the last thing I want to do at the end of the day.  I hope in the future to be able to sit down and learn how to become active in nursing politics.  I would love to be able to express my opinion regarding staffing ratios and other pertinent issues.

Outcome 4 Assignments Link

Outcome 3

          I believe I learned the majority of skills pertaining to using patient care technologies, information systems, and communication devices that support safe nursing practice in a variety of healthcare settings from my nursing informatics class that was part of the BSN program.  During this class I wrote an annotated bibliography on barcode medication administration, which yielded positive results regarding patient safety.  Throughout the nursing informatics class I participated in many discussions including varying aspects of technology available that expedite patient care including CPOE, clinical decision support (CDS), public health surveillance data systems that monitor disease prevalence and outbreaks, and digital Accucheck machines.

            I must say that I love nursing informatics because it is the technology we use every day in patient care that helps us provide quality and safe patient care and allows us to spend more time with our patients by eliminate repetitive tasks.  For example, I love utilizing the barcode medication administration system because it serves as a double check before administering patient medications.  I know that the nurse completes a triple check before giving a med, but humans can make mistakes.  Since humans are not perfect and technology is not full proof, this system enables someone to double check myself and vice versa.  I have heard stories of nurses scanning medications after they were given, which has resulted in medication errors because the nurse choose not to utilize their eMAR appropriately.  I will always scan my medications before I give them because I do not want to cause a medication error due to disregarding a safeguard that is in place for my patient’s safety and my license. In my future practice I will also make use of online resources available to me through my place of employment’s intranet including Krames On Demand, printable medication resources for patients, and Clinical Pharmacology, medication and compatibility information for nurses. 

 Outcome 3 Assignments Link