NURS 1020
NURS 1020 Goals
Goal setting is an important aspect of professional development. According to the College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO) (2002), developing learning goals requires the goals to formed using the SMART Principle (p.2). The CNO gives the following associations to each letter: S is for specific. For this, the goal must be narrowed down into a precise goal, which is not too broad. M is for measurable, and through this, the goal must be able to me either quantitatively or qualitatively measured, such as amounts or feelings. A is for attainable, and through this, the CNO wants the individual to be able to achieve their desired goal, and to have the potential for success. R is for relevant, which is making the goal relatable to the person who is creating it, and making it applicable to something that they are involved in. Finally, the T stands for time-limited, which is adding a time frame to the goal that is within reason, so that the goal isn't too far in the future, or too close to the present moment to be achieved.
Goal One The first goal that I have for NURS 1020 is to be able to fully lift and transfer a patient independently using assistive devices by the end of the NURS 1020 placement (April 2014). This goal is related to the College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO) National Competencies in the context of the entry-level Registered Nurse practice (2008) when it states, that the nurse, “uses safety measures and health care resources to ensure a safe work environment(e.g., patient lifting devices…)” (p.16). Initially, I know that I will need assistance and advice on how to safely transfer a patient, and will probably require the assistance of another care provider to safely transfer the patient. However, by the end of the placement, I would like to be able to independently move the patient, using only the assistive technology available. I would like to be able to do this because I know as a nurse in the future, I might not have other nurses or health care providers support to move patients. This first goal is measurable because I can be evaluated by both my placement supervisor and by the patient who I am moving. I can ask my placement supervisor to evaluate me when I am moving the patient for things such as correct technique, proper use of assistive devices, and patient/ nurse safety. I can ask the patient to evaluate how safe they felt while they were being moved, and how my performance on moving them was in relation to the performance of other health care providers. I believe that my first goal is attainable because though the NURS 1000 tutorials we had to practice lifts and transfers of patients, and according to Professor Tyerman, we will have to transfer patients in the NURS 1020 placement independently (Jane Tyerman, personal communication, October 2013). Thus, I believe that I will have the opportunity to practice lifting and transferring patients independently throughout the NURS 1020 placement, enabling my goal to have the possibility to be achieved. My first goal is both relevant and time-limited. It is relatable to the NURS 1020 placement because one of the skills that is required for placement is the lifting and transferring of patients (Tyerman, personal communication, October 2013). In my future career as a nurse, I will be required to lift and transfer patients in a variety of situations. Thus, my goal is both relatable to the nursing education through the NURS 1020 placement, and also to my overall future career as a nurse.This goal is also time-related because it has a timeline and deadline associated with it, which is the length of the NURS 1020 placement (January 2014-April 2014). This time line has been set because I want to feel comfortable lifting and transferring patients by the end of the NURS 1020 placement so I can bring that confidence and skill into my future placements. Goal Two The second goal that I have for the NURS 1020 placement is to conduct a successful interview with a patient at the long term care facility and take a well-recorded medical history, by the end of the NURS 1020 placement (April 2014). This goal is related to the CNO Entry-to-Practice Competencies for Registered Nurses (2008) which states that the nurse, "uses appropriate assessment tools and techniques in consultation with clients and other health care team members" (p.10). This goal is specific because it outlines a certain task, in that I need to take a well-recorded patient history, and need to conduct an interview with a patient in the long term care facility. Although I did not specify which patient I will be conducting my interview with, it is specific in saying what I will be conducting the interview about (the questions on the patient history sheet), and when I will be doing the interview (during my NURS 1020 placement). This goal is measurable because I can have my placement supervisor evaluate the interview process and how well the patient history is filled out. This will allow for a qualitative measure (by either verbal praise or disapproval from my placement supervisor), as well as for quantitative evaluation with the NURS 1020 placement mark. I can also ask the patient how comfortable they were with me conducting the interview, to get a measure on the patient's evaluation of the experience. This second goal is attainable because according to Professor Jane Tyerman (personal communication, October 2013), students are required to obtain a patient history at some point during their NURS 1020 placement. Thus, since it is mandatory to do, I will be able to attain this goal during my placement experience. However, since my goal is to conduct a successful interview and well-recorded patient history, I will need to practice doing each of those things to ensure my success at this task. This goal is relevant, because taking patient histories is an important part of the nursing career. In the NURS 1000 tutorial, we learned about patient history taking, and how critical it is to take a good patient history. Thus, the goal is very relatable to my education as a nurse currently, and to my future career as a nurse, as patient interviews and histories are something that I will need to be good at doing to be a competent nurse. Finally, this goal has a time-limit, because I am wanting to complete it by the end of the NURS 1020 placement. This time limit has been set because I would like to be able to reflect on this goal before entering into future placements in the Compressed Nursing Program, the next of which starts in the summer of 2014. Thus, since I am given the opportunity to conduct the interview during the NURS 1020 placement, the time frame will be to have the goal completed by the end of the NURS 1020 placement (April 2014). |
NURS 1020 Reflection This first semester of nursing has been filled with many new experiences, both positive and negative. As an individual entering the nursing profession, it is important to look back and reflect on the different experiences that I have been presented with thus far in my nursing journey, and to continue to reflect on further experiences. According to Coulson and Harvey (2012), reflection requires, "a high level of introspection and open-minded self-analysis, a capacity for abstract learning, and self-regulation and agency..." (p. 401). In order to be a competent care provider, reflection is important to learn from situations that have happened, in order to develop new strategies to deal with both the same situation and new situations in the future.
In order for reflection to be effective, it needs to be critical and structured (Burkhardt et al. 2010) thus for this reflective piece, the LEARN model will be used. In the LEARN model, each letter represents a component of the reflective process. The "L" stands for look back, where the person who is reflecting recalls the experience that they wish to reflect upon. The "E" stands for evaluate, where the person then describes the situation in greater detail. The "A" stands for analyze, where they then analyze the situation in greater detail, including what they did wrong and right. The "R" stands for revise, where the learner thinks about what might have worked better in that situation. Finally, the "N" stands for new learning, which is new approaches or policies that might come out of the learner's situation. Look Back Even though this first semester has been very successful for me academically, one event that I did struggle with was receiving a poor mark on a Psychology assignment, and not dealing with the situation very well. As a fairly easy-going person, I left the poor result alone, and did not confront the Professor immediately about the mark being less than satisfactory for my liking, when I thought I had done better on the assignment. Eventually, after much persuading from my roommate, I decided to talk to the Professor about the mark, about three weeks later. Throughout those three weeks, I was incredibly stressed about the mark, and was unhappy about my academic performance. When I talked to the Professor, it ended up that the Professor had accidently wrote the wrong mark on the Portal website, and that I had done actually quite well on the paper. After speaking to the Professor, I was upset at myself for getting so worked up for so long about the mark, when I should have discussed my paper with the Professor before things got out of hand. Through my stress I brought down myself, and others around me, which was not beneficial for any of us. Evaluate When I first received the poor mark on my Psychology assignment, I was sitting in my room at home in Peterborough. Having just moved to Trent, and having this mark be the first one back from Trent (since it was September 25th 2013), I remember feeling overwhelmed at that time. My heart was racing, my hands were shaking, and I was thinking, "oh my gosh, what if I can't do this?" As someone who is extremely fortunate to do well academically, getting a failing mark was quite out of the ordinary for me, and it really made me question my decision to attend Trent at that time. Although being very passionate and outspoken about things near and dear to my heart, I am very easy going in many aspects of my life, and I have never questioned any mark throughout my entire university career. Ultimately, I decided that I did not need to bother my Professor to ask why I had failed the assignment, and that I would just work on doing the best that I could on the rest of the assignments given. Analysis If I had been back at the University of Toronto, where I was more familiar with my classmates and Professors, I probably would have asked my classmates how they had did on the assignment, and would have compared assignments with them to see where I went wrong. Since I am new to Trent, I did not know anyone in my class, I felt helpless and alone in the situation. I should have read the course syllabus and spoken to some of my classmates, because as it turned out, I hadn't done anything really wrong enough to fail, the Professor just posted the wrong mark on the Blackboard site. Upon review of the Trent Academic Petitions website (2013), I learned about appeals and petitions, which are in place for students to petition dissatisfactory grades. Appeals and petitions were put in place to support students in their academic endeavours. I also learned that Professors at Trent are very open to mature communication with their students, and that I should not feel intimidated to go speak with Professors more often. During this experience, I lost a lot of confidence in myself and my self-efficacy decreased greatly. This was because after receiving a poor mark, I believed that this mark was a potential predictor of my future marks at Trent. This led to a decrease in my belief in my abilities to perform well academically, which decreased my self-efficacy. According to Schnuck and Mullen (2012), self-efficacy has a large impact on the motivation to do tasks, especially those associated with school (p. 419). Schnuck and Mullen (2012) also mention that one of the leading causes of student dropping-out of academic situations is low academic motivation due to poor self-efficacy (p.420). Ultimately, high self-efficacy is correlated with better self-concepts and better outcomes due to this positive thinking. Thus, from this experience, I lost a lot of motivation to do school work for a few days, because I thought that I would just do poorly on it. However, once I talked to the Professor and understood the mark mix-up, I regained most of my self-confidence back and was back to my full-motivational status in regards to school work. Revise In this situation, many different things could have been done for it to be dealt with better. First, I should have read the course syllabus and noted the office hours of my Professor and her email address, so that I had the contact information available to meet her at sooner. Second, I should have re-read the assignment outline to see if there was a reason that I failed the paper due to a lack of content (which there was not). Third, I should have advocated for myself sooner, and should have taken a proactive approach to questioning the failing mark sooner. Contacting the Professor a day or two after receiving the mark (giving time for myself to think about where I went wrong) would have been much more appropriate rather than waiting for three weeks after the assignment was handed back. Overall, the entire situation could and should have been dealt with more maturely and promptly, something that I need to change in the future. New Learning From this situation, I have decided to take a more proactive, mature approach to my school work. Receiving good grades has always been extremely important to me, and I now know that I need to do everything that I can to ensure my success at school. After this incident, I decided that I would confront situations immediately in the future, instead of letting them dwell and grow into bigger issues. I also learned through this situation that Trent is an extremely student-success oriented university, and that the Professors only have the best interests of the students in mind. I learned that Professors at Trent really just want the students to succeed, and that if you take the time to discuss things with them, they will try their best to make changes to satisfy both themselves and the student fairly. I also learned through this experience about the different student supports that Trent has in place for their students. I had never navigated through the Trent website until this experience, and I learned that Trent had both an Academic Support page, and a Counselling page on the Trent website. I learned about initiatives such as the proof reading of essays that Trent provides, and the counselling support that is available. I think that it is wonderful that Trent has these support structures in place for their students, to try to ensure that the students have the most success that they can during their university career. If this situation was to happen again, as mentioned previously, I would confront the situation at a sooner time, to avoid the loss of self-efficacy, and the upset that was associated with it. Overall, I learned through this experience that I need to take more control of situations. Being a very easy-going person, who doesn't like to cause trouble, I often just let things slide past me without being really upset by them. Although passionate and outspoken about issues near to my heart, such as equality for children with disabilities and the widespread poverty issue, I need to advocate more for myself as a student, to ensure that I have the academic success that I strive for. |