The Nursing Skills, Knowledge and Attitude

This artifact reflects on the nursing course and its syllabus and how it has helped me to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes required in the field. As a nursing graduate with bachelor’s degree, this artifact explores how I have been prepared to own the nursing competency by the nursing course and its syllabus. Nursing as a career requires these qualities in order to become efficient since it entails dealing with patients and handling the lives of people. A study has shown that the nurses who are more baccalaureate-prepared contribute to better outcomes for a patients and the course has enabled me to become one. As one of the goals of the course, I learned to have a sharp mind in order to assess a situation which requires crucial decisions be made. Various patients with different diseases require multiple options to treat them which calls for critical thinking to analyze the condition and make the best solutions thereof. This calls for a necessity to keep on researching on various kinds of diseases and their treatment and alternative measures. For example, a patient suffering from hypertension requires a nurse to be confident enough and institute an instant and proper solution for treatment.  I have been able to use the nursing and medical databases to find research articles that provide evidence to validate nursing interventions regarding a specific area of nursing practice.  Nursing requires a mind that is set to think widely and analyze critical conditions widely.

I have been able to contribute to the planning and the assessment of nursing care which involves the patients and the clients. The course goes deeper in helping to contribute to the implementation of a program of nursing care, supervised and designed by the registered practitioners involving the users. My flexibility in handling situations has been enhanced. As a nurse, it is not easy to detect what may come up during a working day. The last-minute alterations and emergency cases may arise which requires one to keep on toes managing heavy workloads, patients’ families and a lot of paperwork. Developing the skills of adjusting to a busy and ever-evolving program was an essential aspect I learned in the course.  My ability to develop a mental flexibility that enables me to handle situations such as non-compliant patients and moody doctors was interesting.

As a nurse, I have developed a learning curiosity which is essential in the profession. This has helped me to learn that having a degree or masters in nursing does not stop me from being a student. The course requires one to keep on questioning, learning, exploring and developing the skills throughout my career since it is not possible to know everything at once.   This is because the medicine field involves many changes and evolutions hence the necessity to continue learning. In the nursing profession, it is possible to come across some ailments, surgeries, and medications that are completely new. This necessitates the need to explore and learn the more in order to build on confidence. Learning helps to explore new ways of ensuring the safety and the comfort of the patients. Every new day brings along new challenges and a new thing to be learned in the medicine career. Therefore, to become efficient, a nurse will need to ask for clarifications in the case of a confusion. The nursing profession changes every now and then in terms of technology and the way to perform the duties hence one has to stay updated.

Paying attention to patient details has also been a critical skill. Although one may have a lot of things to handle in the diary, a nurse has to document everything in the patient’s charts and listen keenly to their description of the symptoms and enquire rightly. This goes hand in hand with being keen to administer drugs at the appropriate times. As a nurse, I learned not to be distracted but rather be attentive since the patients and the families are said to sense when the health care providers are rushed or distracted. Even the smallest details need to be remembered regardless of much commotion. Otherwise, a small mishap may end up becoming a fatal mistake and become disastrous. To perfect in this, I will have to be prepared enough with the checklist containing the things to remember when at work and the report that needs to be handed over to the physicians. It is necessary for a nurse to stay in tune with the needs of a patient since it will help to counsel and educate them better.

Communication skills is another powerful tool I learnt in my course. It is an essential skill in nursing career and it is applied in almost all aspects of medicine career, that is, when dealing with the physicians, patients, and all the other interdisciplinary team members.  Communicating effectively to the patients and their loved ones enhance the probability of offering quality health care. This involves being able to speak clearly, listening keenly, mastering the non-verbal cues and admitting when I do not know about something. I can offer to find out instead of fearing to admit.

The course has seen me develop positive attitudes in all situations no matter how hard it may seem. For example, a nurse is normally the last person to be thanked or commented for a well-done job unlike in other professional fields where the managers normally recognize the performance of their staff. This may cause one to become arrogant but as a nurse, I learned to appreciate the aspect of not being recognized by the patients or coworkers. So I have learned not to be expecting a thank you for good performance but rather concentrate on the care of a patient. I got to appreciate myself and stand firm on the belief that I have helped, cared and contributed to the well-being of a patient. I learned to just feel good myself when offering my services and feel confident at it regardless of the lack of people’s gratitude.

As a nurse, I also learned to focus on impacting a change. For example, if I don’t like the work environment, I am to implement a change geared towards improving the health care standards. This also improves my personal enhancement. Altogether, the course has enhanced my attitudes and skills which will help me throughout my career life.