Avery's Site

Month: February 2023

Career Development Reflection

February 28, 2023 / / 0 Comments

This movie was a great documentary that showcased nurses throughout the profession’s development. The documentary began by reflecting on a time before nursing was considered a major profession. The movie brought up many amazing individuals including Florence Nightingale, who was a huge component of the beginning of nursing. I enjoyed watching the movie and thought this quote, “It is hard to not find someone who’s life has been touched by a nurse” perfectly summed up the profession of nursing.

Throughout my time in nursing school at the University of New England, I have been given many different skills that will aid me in my transition to practice. However, one skill highlighted in the NURSE movie that I have truly no experience with is end of life care. Through my clinical rotations and work as a CNA, I have only had one patient that was nearing the end of their life and on hospice care. Due to this, I feel as though I have not had the opportunity to obtain of skill regarding end of life care and education regarding death. The documentary did an amazing job discussing this skill and how many nurses have created the skill into a positive tool when caring for patients.

One population that the movie highlighted that I have not yet served in my time as a nursing student, is the Native American population. The documentary did a fantastic job discussing the care of this patient population as well as how to incorporate their beliefs into the care the nurse is providing. Throughout school, I wish I had an opportunity to travel to a patient population, like a Native American community, to care for individuals there. At UNE, we have learned briefly about populations like Native American populations and how to incorporate their beliefs into our care. It was interesting to see this population be discussed in the movie about how to care and travel to these populations.  One barrier that was shown in the movie was the ability to get access to care. Oftentimes, individuals may not have the resources to obtain care. These resources can include transportation or insurance. The documentary discussed way to still care for these individuals. The best example I saw while watching the movie was nurses traveling to Native American communities to provide care rather than trying to get the communities to the hospital setting. This allowed these individuals to get the care they need even when they may not have the resources to do so. After finishing this documentary, I reflected on areas I may want to improve my understand of populations and inclusion. Two areas that I would be to improve on is better understanding how to provide care of individuals that may have immigrated to the United States that may have different practices regarding medicine as well as different views for certain religions. Both populations may have strong beliefs that I would like to be inclusive with if I can. I think better understanding their beliefs would help me provide the best care for these populations. Overall, I truly appreciated this documentary and its ability to highlight to humility and compassion of the profession of nursing.

After working with the guest speakers that we were fortunate enough to have in our Transition to Practice class, I realized I needed to develop an understanding of what my strengths and weaknesses were. This self-reflection can help put me above other applicants. I think my best strength is being a student-athlete at UNE. Throughout my four years here, I have participated on the women’s varsity ice hockey team. This balance of school and sports has given me the ability to prioritize, and time manage extremely well. An average week for me during season would showcase why this is considered a strength. Throughout a week, I have practices on Monday through Thursday starting around 5 and ending around 8. I have games and travel on the weekend (Friday and Saturday). This type of schedule can create barriers to prioritizing homework and exams. However, I can time manage extremely well and prioritize homework when it is needed.  Since being a student-athlete has led me to be able to time manage and prioritize, I believe it is one of my biggest strengths. Regarding weakness, I reflected on my life and came up with a weakness that I could improve on in the hospital setting. The first is having the ability to delegate tasks to others. I struggle delegating tasks because when I get on a roll, I tend to just want to do everything by myself and I also feel bad having to task someone else with the intervention. One way I plan to address this weakness is to understand that at the hospital, we are a team and teammates always work together. I think this viewpoint will help me better delegate tasks to others.

Nursing Report Bias

February 13, 2023 / / 0 Comments

While watching the nursing report provided, I was shocked to listen to the way the nurse giving report spoke about the patient. In the 40 second clip, I was stunned to hear so many biases. Many comments that the nurse giving report said made me extremely uncomfortable. The first comment was within 5 seconds of the beginning of report when she said, “let me give you report, so I can go.” Although this comment is not necessarily related to bias, it still seems inappropriate to say to the other nurse. The second comment that made me uncomfortable was the pronunciation of the patient’s name. The nurse giving report addressed the patient’s name incorrectly and then proceeded to say “who knows where he’s from” insinuating that he is not from here due to his name. This is also an extremely inappropriate comment and shows the nurse’s bias towards the patient. The last comment that stood out to me was the comment about how the patient was injured. The patient had reported his injury was due to a sports accident related to skateboarding. However, when the nurse giving report commented on why the patient was admitted, she used air quotes when addressing the skateboard accident insinuating it was something else has caused his injury instead of a sports injury. These comments made me extremely uncomfortable and showed the reporting nurse’s biases.

These statements are extremely important to address because of many reasons. First, comments like these are inappropriate regardless of the situation or patient. Secondly, the nurse giving report is displaying a distaste for the patient and not treating the patient with the kindness and respect all patients deserve. These comments could take away from the care the patient should be receiving. These comments the nurse is making makes it seem as though she does not respect the patient enough to prove important care for him. Due to this, the patient could suffer physically after surgery and/or mentally.

My initial reaction if I was the nurse receiving this report would be extremely shocked and then have a difficult time responding to the initial comments. However, after my shock subsided, I would feel upset and angry with the words and biases the nurse giving report was saying. I do think I would be able to address the comments the nurse was making. I also think I would bring these comments to the attention of the charge nurse to further discuss the actions that should be taken.   

One of the most uncomfortable situations I have witnessed that displayed bias was in my first clinical rotation. This specific rotation was on a rehab unit with patients recovering from knee, hip, etc. surgery that typically received opioid pain medication. I was in a room with a patient taking a head-to-toe assessment when the rounding team of providers stopped in. I stepped out of the room to give the patient and providers time to speak. While in the hallway I was taking notes on my head-to-toe findings, when I heard one the providers begin to discuss pain management. The patient was upset with the topic and the provider became upset with the patient. After they left the room, the provider addressed the group and said the patient was only upset because they were a drug addict and did not deserve pain medication due to their addiction. The provider then went on to say the patient was from a certain town that was known for addiction and assumed that was why the patient was so upset about the change in medication. One of the other providers asked if the patient could be upset because the change to his medication was not previously discussed with them. The original provider laughed and said no the only possible explanation was the patient being a drug addict. This was the first time I have ever witnessed a bias in the hospital and was shocked to no one truly stand up for the patient.  

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