When I first began my nursing career I was so happy and relieved to have passed the license exam. My first thought was “Thank God I passed no more studying for me.” Ten years later in retrospect the notion that I was “done learning” was so far from the truth. The truth is being a nurse is a lifelong commitment to learning. Furthermore passing the NCLEX is recognized only as assuring minimal entry level competency. While years of experience is respected it is my personal opinion that certifications and obtaining higher levels of education hold the highest honor and respect.
A vast array of knowledge is a mandatory requirement for a great nurse to possess. Simply because of the nature of our profession, nurses play a significant role is hospitalizations, clinics and private practice. As the largest health care occupation our duties are not limited to just hands on patient care as I once thought.
Rooted with the commitment to helping people the nursing profession has evolved. Currently many branches of nursing exist. With the evolution of nursing as a profession the requirements for higher education and certification is necessary. Evidence based practice is driving health care today. In order for nurses of today to ensure a meaningful contribution to patient health and well being one must have a higher level of education and understanding.
The RNBS program has equipped me with the necessary knowledge and understanding i need to move forward in my nursing career.I have in fact sharpened my nursing skills utilizing pertinent information from my leadership , community, research, case management, urban and professional nursing coarse.
My leadership coarse helped me understand that there is a difference between leadership and management and that great leaders facilitate management by inspiring and empowering their staff.
My community coarse allowed me to gain exposure to the out patient setting where the nurses roll and scope of practice is significantly different yet as important for the community. That is when I began to really understand the branches of nursing which exist. I have a new found respect for the outpatient clinic, now I understanding how important it is to be proactive by facilitating in the health and well being of the community prior to an acute exacerbation needing hospitalization.
Evidences base practice is directing the health care field.My research coarse equipped me with the necessary knowledge I need to understand research, its importance to the health care field , decipher current research and perhaps be apart of future research.
Like my community health coarse my case management and urban coarse gave me insight of the other aspect of nursing which are very different yet as important as bed side nursing. I was given the oppritunity to interact with a set of preschoolers from an underprivileged community during my clinical rotation for urban. Working with the young child at school was a great experience, those children were so pleasant and full of life.
After ten year of bedside nursing obtaining a bachelor degree is one of my goals that I can now say is almost compete. My only regret is that i didn’t come back to school sooner. I truly enjoy interacting with fellow nurses out side the clinical setting and I appreciated my teacher for bestowing on my a wealth of knowledge. I look forward to completing my bachelor degree and moving on to my masters.
