Avery's Site

Category: Reflection

Preparation for Licensure and Transition to Professional Practice

April 22, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Reflecting on the SMART Goals I set for myself in January, I believe I have become a better test taker and feel more prepared for the NCLEX. Through my individual performance profiles on ATI assessments, I learned many things I could improve on to better my scores. At the beginning of the semester, I was taking tests very quicky and not reading the questions/answers very thoroughly. After reviewing the Adaptive exams, I realized many of my incorrect answers were due to not taking the time to read the questions/answers. After realizing this, I began to take the tests slower and read through the questions slower, this greatly improved my score and helped me differentiate between incorrect answers due to this or incorrect answers due to a knowledge deficit.

After taking these ATI tests, I learned different areas that I needed to improve my knowledge. Some of these areas were deficits because we had not covered the material in class yet. The other areas were content gaps I did not know I had. My plan throughout the semester to improve these gaps were through ATI remediations, reviewing content in the textbook, and learn about the topics in class. These three methods helped me develop a deeper understanding and memory of the content I often forgot. Through these methods, I am now able to answer the questions correctly through memory and understanding.

Throughout this semester, we as students have learned how important it is to have self-care in a profession like nursing. At the beginning of the semester, my last hockey season was still going on. I truly looked to hockey as a huge portion of my self-care and work/life balance. However, in March the season came to an end. This was difficult for me because I needed to discover other ways to provide self-care. I began meditating and working out. These two things helped create a base for my self-care. I believe I am much more prepared to have a work/life balance now than I was at the beginning of the semester and look forward to having the ability to do both work and other fun activities.

The skills I have learned throughout this semester will continue to help me after I graduate. The learning I have done in Transitions will help me prep for the NCLEX by taking practice questions, reading the questions slowly, and understanding why I did not answer the question correctly. These small tools will help me be the most prepared to take my boards. These skills will also help me after boards, transitioning into the field of nursing. These skills will help me time manage, prioritize, and critically think about situations.

Attaining and Protecting Your Professional Nursing License Reflection

March 26, 2023 / / 0 Comments

I plan to become licensed by examination in Maine. It is part of the Nurse Licensure Compact (NLC). The application for licensing in Maine is web-based and the application requires me to send official transcripts and a sign off from the director of the program. Maine also requires both criminal background checks (CBC) and finger printing. CBC must be completed prior to the date of examination and is only valid for 90 days. The CBC process is through the Maine State Board of Nursing application. To get fingerprinted, I need to travel to a location in Maine that is accepted by the Maine State Board and get go through the process of finger printing there.

After listening to the presentations from the District Attorney’s Office and Medical Professionals Health Program (MPHP), I reflected on how the Maine State Board of Nursing helps provide care and education on different issues that may arise. On the website, it provides information about being required to report suspected impairment or other issues that require disciplinary measures. There are resources for recovery on the Maine State Board of Nursing Website, including links to MPHP. I plan to protect myself and my license from legal issues by documenting in general, as well as documenting incidents through an incident report. I will also notify both the nurse manger and anyone else I need to if an issue arises.

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.

Preparing for Transition

January 22, 2023 / / 0 Comments

As I progress towards graduation and the end of my nursing schooling, I have many mixed emotions. I am excited to begin working in a hospital and taking care of patients. I am also excited to take everything I learned from nursing school and incorporate it into what I am learning at the hospital throughout my orientation and first few years. Although I am very excited to begin my new journey of becoming a nurse, I am also very anxious about it! My biggest fear currently is taking the NCLEX. I believe this is my biggest fear because it is standing in between me and becoming a true registered nurse. However, I am grateful for classes, such as transition to practice, that is preparing me to take the NCLEX. Through these classes and studying small sections of different material each day for 30 minutes, I feel as though I will be able to attain my goal.

In Transition to Practice, I watched modules on four major Nursing Logics. I learned many helpful concepts from these modules. For the first Nursing Logic, Knowledge and Clinical Judgement, I learned different strategies that will help me succeed. These strategies included meaningful reading, sticking to a routine, and foundational thinking. These three concepts will help me when studying for nursing classes but also when I am prepping for the NCLEX. In the second Nursing Logic, Nursing Concepts, I learned about new technology, web-based information, and good resources. These concepts are important to me because many patients will look up what is going on with them on the internet. Through this module, I will now be able to give patient safe and helpful internet resources. In the third Nursing Logic, Priority Setting Frameworks, I learned about survival potential and the different categories within that, I also re-learned about safety reduction, and ABCs. Although I already had knowledge on airway, breathing, and circulation (ABCs) and safety reduction, I believe it was extremely helpful to re-learn the material. Lastly, in the fourth Nursing Logic, Testing and Remediation, I learned how to prep and take a standardized test, like the NLCEX. I also learned how to properly read the questions and critically think about the answer. Lastly, I learned about the NCLEX and ways to properly take the test. Although I am very nervous for my upcoming future, especially the NCLEX, I know my nursing classes and materials like the Nursing Logic will help me when taking the exam.

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