C493 Portfolio

A.2a Explain how the specific artifacts or completed work represent you as a learner and a healthcare professional. My artifacts and completed work show how I used my existing nursing skills combined with my learned skills during the BSN program to enhance my critical thinking and research skills. This program gave me a great appreciation for the ability to use research application to improve nursing processes, patient outcomes, and work environment. My work throughout the program shows how I was continuously being a learner and enhancing my skills as a healthcare professional. Professional Leadership and Communication made me look at my nursing roles and the type of leadership I was utilizing. While looking at different leadership styles I learned how to better collaborate with others while using my strengths to be part of a team. A team that can lead to a better work environment and improved patient outcomes. During Evidence Based Practice and Applied Nursing Research I learned how to use statistics, research and Evidence Based Practice to become an improved healthcare professional-improving the healthcare provided to patients. Organizational Systems and Quality Leadership taught me the importance of leadership roles, patient safety, and continuous improvement as healthcare provider. Professional Roles and Values taught me the importance and value of the nurse as a healthcare provider. Lastly, Community Health and Population provided me with the opportunity to be an advocate for my community as a health care provider. These courses and completed work represent me as a continuing learner and improved healthcare provider. A.2b Discuss how the specific artifacts in your portfolio represent your professional strengths The artifacts and completed work in my portfolio represent my strengths as a healthcare provider including: an eagerness to learn and gain knowledge, using my voice/opinion/strengths positively as a healthcare provider, promoting effective communication, problem solving, and the ability to take feedback/criticism and use it positively. My eagerness to learn and gain knowledge can be seen throughout my completed work. Wanting to gain knowledge is also the driving force behind my mission statement. As previously stated, I had difficulty with certain courses, but wanting to gain and understand knowledge helped me to not give up. Professional Leadership and Communication as well as other courses (and my Leadership Learning Experience) helped bring out an unknown strength of mine. I have always been one to not voice my opinion or thoughts based on a fear of argumentation with others. Avoiding confrontation whenever possible has been a thing of mine for years. These courses helped me realizing that I was good at using my voice to improve situations and help others. That voicing my opinion did not mean confrontation but could mean collaboration and better outcomes for everyone. My completed coursework helped me realize that a strength of mine is promoting the use of effective communication. My Leadership Learning Experience was about promoting effective communication at my workplace. It has led to increased work satisfaction and better patient/family outcomes. I continue to strive for effective communication in everything I do. Using Evidence Based Practice, research, and critical thinking throughout the program showed me that one of my strengths is the ability to work with others at problem solving. I have been told in the past that this was a strength of mine, but this program enhanced my ability to be a problem solver. Lastly, throughout my completed work and courses I learned that taking feeding back and using it positively was something I do well. Many times, I could have been “offended” or hurt by feedback/criticism but that does nothing for anyone. I have always told my patients and their families to please tell me if I was doing something they wanted changed or done differently. The ability to use feedback/criticism positively can truly make a difference in how I work with others as a healthcare professional. These courses and completed work show my strengths as healthcare professional. A.2c Discuss challenges you encountered during the progression of your program. During the BSN program I encountered many challenges that at times became overwhelming. Some of the challenges were program related and some of them were personal. I started the program strong and moved through my courses quickly, giving me confidence and making me want to continue to move quickly. Unfortunately, then I hit a bump with Biochemistry and Microbiology. Both courses were a challenge and gave me a sense of hopelessness. I understood the material and content but could not pass the assessments. It became a huge frustration for me after being able to complete my first courses so quickly. The other course related challenge I faced was time management. Balancing school, work, and family was a challenge at times. It left me feeling that one of these areas was not getting my full devotion and attention. My personal challenges included: multiple family illnesses, family deaths, a longtime relationship ending, a car accident leading to multiple injuries, an outdoor accident leading to more injuries, a broken laptop, and a death of a family pet. These challenges were at times very overwhelming and directly affected my ability to complete my course work. It also had an even greater impact on my ability to manage my time. At times, the program and personal challenges I encountered made me want to give up and quit school. Fortunately, I was able to overcome my battles and push to obtain a life goal of mine. A.2ci Explain how you overcame these challenges. Ultimately, the way I overcame these challenges was my underlying desire to complete my goal. I know that many people had more challenges than me and were able to overcome to complete their education and goals. My mentor was crucial to me and a huge support system throughout my program. She kept me going, encouraged me, and pushed me to continue even when it felt impossible to continue with my program. She never gave up on me and continued to call me. Family support and help with babysitting also played a major part in helping me to complete my program. I am very appreciative and grateful for the amazing people in my life that helped me to accomplish this goal. A.2d Explain how your coursework helped you meet each of the nine nursing program outcomes. 1.Communication: Using effective communication during the program was necessary and demonstrated in oral, written, interpersonal, and electronic form. Communication with my mentor and course instructors was essential in order to properly complete the program. Effective communication was also used in the written papers I submitted. The first course I took for my program was Professional Leadership and Communication for Healthcare Providers. This course really helped me to overcome my fear of being on video. I learned how to effectively communicate face to face and to not be afraid of this type of communication. I was pushed out of my comfort zone and it has changed my life for the better. My Leadership Learning Project also gave me the perfect opportunity to be more confident in communicating interpersonally effectively and professionally. My project topic was finding solutions for the ineffective communication that was happening in my company. The project helped me to find solutions and ways to provide for more effective communication. I also learned throughout my program how to effectively communicate electronically in ways including: e-mails, papers, and interactions between myself and program mentors. This played over into my job and leadership learning project because almost everything in my company is communicated electronically. This program has helped me to communicate more effectively in my work as well as in my personal relationships. 2.Safety and Quality: This program taught me that as a nurse it is crucial to use clinical reasoning to provide safe, quality nursing care that is ethical and based on evidence-based practice. During my Leadership Learning Experience, I used evidence-based practice as well as root cause analysis. Ineffective communication was influencing the patient’s safety and quality of care. This helped me to understand the contributing factors for the ineffective communication that was happening within our company. It also helped me to come up with solutions to correct the problem. As a result, I continue to implement these programs to provide safe and quality care to my patients and their families. 3. Accountability: Being an accountable nurse means to provide safe, ethical, unbiased, professional, and quality care to all my patients and their families. This means to always be an advocate for my patients by protecting them from harm and sticking to ethical and professional standards. Accountability includes following protocols, following nursing standards, and knowing my limitations (asking for help if needed). My Leadership Learning Experience helped me to better understand the importance of accountability. I learned in order to use evidencebased practice and provide the highest quality of care for my patients; it is crucial to be accountable for my actions. Also, it is crucial to follow protocol and document any errors in patient care immediately with the proper paperwork and/or authorities. My project showed me the importance of being accountable and what could happen when nurses are not accountable. Lastly, this project showed me that even something that seems so small could have a major affect on the quality of care patients receive. It is imperative that I am always accountable for my actions. 4. Social Advocate: During the program and course work I learned how to look at the community and find ways to become a social advocate. Using my clinical thinking, knowledge, research, and nursing skills I learned how to find ways to become a better social advocate for my community. During my Community Health and Population course I was able to use evidencebased practice and research to help look at and solve problems within the community. This helped me to be able to recognize and see possible opportunities to provide better care and be a better health care provider amongst my community. 5. Compassionate Care: Throughout my program there was an emphasis on providing compassionate patient-centered care to a variety of patients and families in my community. Being a compassionate caregiver is something that is implanted in the nursing career. Patients come from a variety of backgrounds, cultures, and religious beliefs. While working through my courses I saw the importance of providing unbiased care at my work. One example of this I saw when I worked with a family that had trouble keeping nurses around because of their culture and beliefs. This was heartbreaking for me to see and only emphasized what I was learning in my courses. The patient and family needed quality care from nurses and was not receiving it because of biased feelings. I have seen this more than once while working through my program. leading me to be even more appreciative of the education I have received. 6.Leadership and Education: Using leadership and education skills a nurse can involve others to help provide a healing environment that promotes improvement for everyone. I gained leadership and educator experience from my Professional Roles and Values course. During this class I was able to better understand how to be an effective leader and educator. It allowed me to better understand how to become a better leader and educator. Although, I had previous experience as a leader and educator at work, this course helped show me ways to improve upon what I already was doing. The course showed me how to effectively use education to look at the outcomes and use them to make decisions on improving patient care. 7.Interpersonal Collaboration: Interpersonal collaboration is crucial for improving the quality