Collaboration

Health care System: During orientation, we learned about the facility’s standards of care as well as how to document appropriately. This is essential to maintaining an organized healthcare working environment because we will be able to collaborate with other departments of nursing efficiently to take care of our clients. Something I lack in is knowing the facility’s protocol for different procedures, but I am able to learn with practice and experience. 

Therapeutic communication: While I am still learning on how to communicate therapeutically, I have demonstrated it at the hospital by using skills such as active listening, responding with open-ended questions, and clarifying what the client says. This is a skill that I will have to practice because I realize that while I am a good listener, I lack in carrying a conversation. I want to improve on speaking, but I sometimes do not know how to respond to certain situations. In order to improve this, I will have to put myself out of my comfort zone by participating in organizations or practice scenarios at home. This goes along with the professional identity component, where we want to carry ourselves like a nurse not only at work, but also outside of work.

Health Promotion/ Teaching: This is also a component that I will have to work on, but I always make sure to do some method of teaching before I leave the hospital. For example, I will make sure to learn about the client’s medications and side effects, and teach adverse side effects to the clients and what symptoms to look for. It is important to make sure that the client understands so that they know how to take care of themselves when they are discharged.

Professional communication: I have used professional communication when communicating with my peers, the nurse, and the CNA at the hospital. For example, I let the assigned CNA and the RN know that I took vital signs of the client and measured their input and output. I also professionally communicate with the nurse when I am leaving the hospital by providing them a hand-off report. I also do handoff reports to my peers when leaving for break or the restroom. I have significantly improved on my SBAR and I hope to improve by giving the floor nurses a handoff report when the oncoming PM shift nurses come. 

Manage Conflict: When I was a team leader, there was a moment when my team members may have felt overwhelmed by the workload and medications to give. In order to alleviate that workload, I asked my team member if I can help them by looking up IV compatibilities, medication side effects, etc. and they were relieved to pass this duty to me. I wrote down the details of the IV med on a paper as well as verbally told the team member and that helped them manage their time more efficiently.

Working with the Team: I communicated with the CNA when dealing with a client’s bowel movement as well as the vitals and meal intake. Whenever I go on my 15 minute breaks, I make sure to let the team leader or another team member know an update of my clients. I also make sure to let the nurse know that I will be passing out the medications and providing total care of my clients.