BSN C493 Leadership Skills in Nursing Profession.

BSN C493 Leadership Skills in Nursing Profession. A.1 Complete a Mission Statement My goal professionally after completing my BSN is to become a NP who specializes in care for special needs children. A major goal of mine is to continue to educate myself on how to provide the best possible care for my patients and their families. This includes keeping up to date with any current studies and research that may apply to this field of nursing. Providing quality care with compassion, knowledge, and respect is my mission statement and something I wish to achieve daily. Understanding and striving to find positive ways to communicate, especially with non-verbal patients, has become something I feel very passionately about. Many people feel that the patients I work with are unaware of their surroundings or feelings and that they are incapable of expressing anything. In my experiences, this is very inaccurate. Every patient I have ever encountered has adapted and is very capable of expressing themselves in some way (including their wants and needs). By striving to achieve these goals I hope to have a positive impact on my patients and their family’s lives while providing them with the highest quality of care. History on how I reached my mission statement: Being a nurse became a goal of mine as an incredibly young age. I enjoyed helping people and was always looking for ways to assist my friends and family in any way I could. As time went on and life happened, my dream career of becoming a nurse got pushed aside due to trials and life in general. But there was always the nagging thought in the back of my mind that I was not doing what I had always wanted to do. Finally, at the age of 28 I decided I was going to go to nursing school and obtain my goal. It was not easy being a single mom with a young child. I encountered numerous challenges and feelings of just wanting to quit at times. What kept me going were family, friends, and ultimately knowing that I loved helping and caring for other people. After graduating with my ASN, I knew I wanted to pursue my BSN. My goal of pursing my BSN was set aside at this time as started work and time went flying by. My first nursing job I took was home health working with special needs children. I went into this job thinking it would be a steppingstone and I would move on to something quickly. I was told this was true for many nurses that had done this type of nursing before. Working in this field of nursing was daunting at first because I had not learned a lot about the cares and skills needed for these children. Working with vents, tracheostomies, and gastronomies was not something I had a lot of experience with nor had I learned a lot about in school. There were times of frustration because I wanted to be more knowledgeable and proficient about everything I was doing. This made me decide to educate myself through anything I could: books, pamphlets, manuals, seminars, training sessions, using parent/family knowledge, and asking other healthcare providers for help and/or answers. The more knowledge I gained, the more comfortable I became with my skills and abilities to care for my patients. Even with the challenges, it did not take me long to fall in love with this type of nursing and my patients. I have yet to move on to something else and continue to enhance my knowledge and skills. I have looked at other nursing fields and been offered positions, but ultimately love what I do and am deeply passionate about it. While working with these children and their families I learned that there is a definite need for more healthcare providers that specialize in this field. Many of these families must travel long distances to get the care they need. Learning this made me finally decide to go back to school to pursue my BSN followed by furthering my education to become a NP. This is what shaped my mission statement and where I want to go with my nursing career. A.1a Reflect on how your professional mission statement will help guide you throughout your nursing career. I feel that the hardships and long time it took me to achieve my goal of becoming a nurse helped to shape my mission statement. Once I started my nursing career it did not take me long to realize what my goals as a nurse were. At that time, I didn’t call it a mission statement, but I knew what I wished to achieve and what type of nurse I wanted to become and be. Although I have had struggles and times of trial, I have still stuck with my same goals and aspirations to be a knowledgeable, compassionate nurse. I feel that I will continue to strive to maintain my mission statement which will shape my nursing career and make me be the best nurse I can. 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.