Values Clarification - Values clarification related to their initial belief statement 

 

My initial values of self-awareness, compassion, selfless, and knowledge are all very important as a nursing student continuing in my second year. Even though I wasn't able to demonstrate compassion in this Community Nursing Placement as much as I would have liked, I always have the opportunity to use it during other nursing placements. In this nursing placement, I was able to demonstrate self-awareness as I was always aware of the things happening around me, as well as I was always aware of my own thoughts and actions. Especially in this placement, we always had to be aware of what was being said during client assessments/interviews, as saying the wrong thing could result in a very bad experience for them. The goal is to provide an environment that is supportive, so they feel comfortable to open up to you. Secondly, being selfless is a very important value in nursing as I believe individual's needs are always more important than your own in this profession. People depend on their health care professionals for help, and believe that you are working in the profession as you want to help them achieve optimal health. Lastly, knowledge is especially important, as nurses will work in any placement with any population. Having the right knowledge about the specific populations you are working with will be beneficial for your clients/patients as they will receive the best information for their health concern. Additionally, if you have no idea what you're talking about, then that can cause a major barrier.

 

Learning Objectives - Brief reflective statement of how learning objectives were incorporated into your project

 

As a second year nursing student, I demonstrated the ability to successfully complete the course objectives at this level. I constantly applied professional responsibility and accountability to collaboratively plan, implement, and or evaluate a health promotion project using elements of theory by conducting research on childhood obesity, therapeutic play, social risk, and motivational interviewing to incorporate into our health promotion project. I used this research to apply it to the obesity population, which will initiate the development of our project. I observed client assessments, and always provided a supportive environment for the family. I particpated in de-briefing sessions to demonstrated my ability to be able to apply certain concepts learned in nursing theory courses to this obesity population. The concepts we used were the Social Determinants of Health, and the Stages of Change Model. My partner and I worked exceptionally well through the progress of our project, and always evenly distibuted the workload. We always respected eachothers input towards praxis notes, and always agreed on what was best for the further development of our project. When researching for our placement project, my partner and I were able to apply the knowledge gained through research towards meeting our project objectives. We continuously updated our preceptor and the staff on the progress of our project when we were on and off site of placement. My partner and I always took initiative on our own time, at placement and offsite to ensure we were completing tasks on time, and to the best of our ability. We always identifed when we needed clarity on some aspects within the placement, and would always ask questions to ensure our understanding of key concepts. 

 

Feedback - Reflection on feedback from clinical instructur, preceptor and peers

 

Throughout the course, my clinical instructor had a very important role to ensure we were gaining the full experience in community nursing. I really enjoyed being involved with my clinical instructor this semester as she always provided excellent feedback, and was always available to the students with whom she was working with. In the feedback she has provided,  she exclaims that I understand my role as a learner/student in this community nursing setting and i'm working within the scope of practice of a 2nd year nursing student. Which is absolutely true, as I am fully aware of my role as nursing student in this placement, and demonstrate the abilities of a 2nd year nursing student as I'm constantly ensuring I am meeting the criteria. The feedback includes my strengths of being able to articulate information as well as being outgoing, and often taking a leadership role. I know I have these strengths as I was in the army cadet program for 5 years, and became the highest ranking cadet in my home corp. I have gained the ability to work independently within my community placement, and I show abilities to identify tasks, and became very self-directed with our project. I am well organzied and have great time management skills, and always arrive on time and eager to contribute to the discussion. I show evidence of critical thinking and application of theoretical concepts as I was researching the Social Determinants of Health, and Stages of Change model throughout the semester, and applied them to the obesity population. As a nursing student continuing into her second semester of second year, I will surely carry these strengths of mine with me. Our preceptor gave my partner and I continuous feedback throughout the semester that was helpful for the development of our project. In contrast, I know I could work on double checking deadlines, as I always assumed the deadline would be later an expected. When this was not the case, submitting the assignment late does not look good, and I do not want to leave that kind of impression in the future.