As a student nurse, the quote “the world is your oyster” always speaks to me because I have had so many opportunities to see various nurse specialties throughout my years as a student nurse and continue to have these opportunities. This ability to see the different types of nursing has made me consider a couple of different areas of interest. I have always been interested in oncology, especially pediatric oncology. I volunteered at a cancer hospital, and I was amazed by the way the nurses and patients created such a positive atmosphere in a place that you would expect a lot of gloom. I found myself wanting to bring that positive energy to a unit that needs some uplifting. Through this specialty, I would like to learn more about how different types of radiation and chemotherapy affect young children and different nonpharmacological ways to treat these patients. One way I can learn more about these topics is through evidence-based practice. My assumptions of evidence-based practice are that nurses provide the most up-to-date care through advanced literature that is constantly changing. My ideas of evidence-based practice are that just like in the hospital, the written evidence is always changing. As a nurse, I feel as though I will need to keep up to date on new evidence-based practices as well as provide some research of my own to continue to learn and grow as a caregiver.

This Evidence-based practice course will teach me how to think more critically and review all the applicable options to create the best care for a patient as well as give me the skills to properly create my evidence-based material. I will be able to use these new critical thinking skills and writing abilities in my other classes as well as clinical by reviewing all the information I am given and applying the best choice for an answer or a patient. The Evidence-based practice course will help me learn how to create a research paper so when I am in the clinical setting as a registered nurse, I can perform research with my colleagues. It will also help me review the literature to find the best intervention and outcome for my patients.