Module 5

How did the readings influence your perception of your own clinical decision-making?

After doing the readings, I started to look at the safety measures that were used in the hospital when I worked there. Some of the things that we had to use made a lot of sense. For example when it came to scanning the medication and the patient's ID. But some of the orders and the way they had to be checked seemed more of a burden. Now that I have done the readings it make more sense to orders and procedures standardized. Unfortunately, the setting I now work in is a community setting and has not standardized very much and is still influenced greatly by public opinion. I feel those involved receiving services would benefit much more with standardized orders and procedures.

The nurses I work with are good so that really isn’t the problem. It’s more that they are forced to follow a procedure that is not best practice because of pressure of non-medical personnel and the public opinion. Even if a family member thinks they are the best advocate for their child, it isn’t always in their best interest to do what the family wants because they usually don’t have the medical training. Instead, they have read about it on the Internet. I guess it is safe to say I have a newfound respect for the programs that are used when caring for patients. It’s nice to have these types of programs to back you up and act as a check for clinical decisions.

Module 4

What sort of teaching is done in your professional role? Is there any nursing/health care provider role that does not involve teaching in some manner?

Some days it feels as though all I do is teach in my professional role. I think nurses teach all the time. It is easy to forget that everyone doesn't have the training we have received. As we work with other nurses we have discussions about nursing subjects all the time. When a person that isn't a nurse asks a question I sometimes have to stop and think about what I say so they will be able to understand what I am saying. People seem to always have a question when they find out you are a nurse. It doesn't seem to matter what the specialty is. I don't believe that there is any type of nurse that doesn't do some type of teaching, somewhere, sometime, somehow.

I am working in the community as a district nurse in a school district. I have students that are scared or have questions and I need to stop and talk with them. The scared student can be put at ease when they are taught about what is going on with a cut or sore. Other students have questions about things they have heard. When the students aren't asking questions, I have parents and staff members that have questions. They want to understand something about their health or someone they know. There have been times that I wasn't sure of the answer so I had to quickly study information and they be able to explain it to the one with the question. I have been asked to teach classes from washing hands to maturation. I believe that if I had nothing else to do, I could spend my whole day teaching when it comes to nursing. One thing about being a nurse, I'll probably never stop teaching and never stop learning.

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