Reflection Paper
In the dynamic and complex health care system in the United States, nurses can only be assured of quality and safe health care if they make an optimal contribution. The nurses especially the nurse managers must not only perform their daily activities with optimum competence but also lead the change that is necessary for securing the healthy people 2020 goals. Nurses, therefore, have the professional responsibility to regularly assess their ability to perform their tasks and to lead others towards achieving quality health care for all (Borteyrou, Truchot, & Rascle, 2013). The nurse has to perform self-evaluation. The self-evaluation can then be coupled with the supervisor’s assessment to develop individualized professional development plan. Such is the intent of this paper, to rate through reflection my abilities in diverse aspects of my qualification as a nurse.
First is a rating of my personal and professional accountability. I wouldn’t call myself an expert yet; I have just concluded my internships, and I’m yet to practice as a qualified nurse. I am a novice as far as my education level goes. I, however, have plans to advance my level of education in nursing once I have tucked three years of experience in the hospital bedside care. Additionally, I believe I am competent and experienced in matters dealing with ethical behavior and practice. During my internship rotation, I depicted in my practice, ethical behavior that was well with the professional standards. All the roles and responsibilities I undertook during my internship were well within my scope of practice.
As a student nurse, I have been an active member of the professional associations of nursing students. I, however, am yet to join other senior professional nursing organizations such as the American Nurses Association since I’m yet to qualify and receive my practicing license. That makes me a novice on that aspect. As of now, my sole certification is in basic level qualification as a nurse; I am yet to specialize in any of the nursing fields so novice there (Borteyrou, Truchot, & Rascle, 2013).
Regarding career planning, I have attained expert status in knowing my role as a nurse. Being well aware of my job description and requirements, my expertise here is second to one. I can claim competency in knowing what lies ahead for me as a nurse; I have a clear path in mind of where I intend to be after ten years of practice (Siles-González & Solano-Ruiz, 2016). As to where I fit in the future of nursing, is my feeling that events in the health care industry will play a larger role in shaping up that for me. I am yet to take the best position that would thrust me in the direction to take career wise, but it is my belief that once I begin to practice, I will be better placed to take the best position on that matter.
On issues leadership, despite my vast knowledge in managing councils that promote shared leadership, I still lack in experience at this level. With more experience in my practice, I will be more competent in this field. I am a competent problem solver, having encountered many challenges during my internship period; it is my feeling that I can solve quite some challenges that come my way (Borteyrou, Truchot, & Rascle, 2013). What’s more, I have always sat down to reflect upon and evaluate the strategies I took to solve the problems, their effectiveness in solving the problems and their ability to sustain the solution. Moreover, I am a skilled reflection as a nurse leader at my level of nursing (Siles-González & Solano-Ruiz, 2016). Being knowledgeable in reflective practice as a leadership behavior it is fair to say I’ve got that area well covered.
Finally, on the fourth aspect, I am a very honest individual, to myself and others; my integrity is that of an expert. Ambiguous work environments, however, provide a challenge to my practice; I function well in less ambiguity and more clarity. My appreciation of diversity is second to none; I am culturally competent having come across many different cultures in my internship period and my casual life (Finnbakk, Wangensteen, Skovdahl, & Fagerström, 2015). With such competence in culture and appreciation of different opinion and culture, I have developed a capacity to hold many different perspectives on matters without judging. Identifying potential in others is still a challenge for me, as of now I can only feel it in myself, I think with time I will get the hang of it (Siles-González & Solano-Ruiz, 2016). Emotionally I am competent in adding to my knowledge base regarding the world.
With this current leadership skill set, I intend to set a clear example for the nurses under my lead to follow. Similarly, I will look to involve the nurses in problem-solving and coming up with solutions that are sustainable (Siles-González & Solano-Ruiz, 2016). Knowing too well that change is inevitable from my knowledge of the world; I will not stand in the way of change rather I will lead the way for other nurses to follow. It is also my belief that my ability to accommodate multiple views on issues will be helpful in getting the best possible way to approach change. My goal is to be a leader who is accommodative and responsive to the dynamism of the health care industry (Finnbakk, Wangensteen, Skovdahl, & Fagerström, 2015). To achieve this, I will continually seek professional development in nursing education and other fields such as training in cultural competence.
In conclusion, this paper has provided a reflection of a nurse. The reflection has been a self-evaluation of the individual’s ability and skill level in different aspects of his qualification as a nurse. The paper has further described how the skills in leadership can be helpful in fostering change.
References
Borteyrou, X., Truchot, D., & Rascle, N. (2013). Development and validation of the Work Stressor Inventory for Nurses in Oncology: preliminary findings. Journal Of Advanced Nursing, 70(2), 443-453. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jan.12231
Finnbakk, E., Wangensteen, S., Skovdahl, K., & Fagerström, L. (2015). The Professional Nurse Self-Assessment Scale: Psychometric testing in Norwegian long term and home care contexts. BMC Nursing, 14(1). http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12912-015-0109-3
Siles-González, J. & Solano-Ruiz, C. (2016). Self-assessment, reflection on practice and critical thinking in nursing students. Nurse Education Today, 45, 132-137. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2016.07.005
