Anzhela Yusupova, RN
Community Nursing, Section HD 13
Self-Reflection
Introduction
This is my professional self – reflection of how I met the different objectives during my Community Nursing Course. The clinical facility of the site that I was assigned for during this semester of spring 2015, was Bay Ridge site Shore Hill Neighborhood Center that is located at 9000 Shore Road Brooklyn, New York 11209. I had a little taste of what it’s like to be a community nurse, and it was very different and enjoyable experience. I feel that this class had gave an opportunity to look at nursing from a new perspective about patient care.
Objective 1: Demonstrate individual professionalism through personal behavior and appearance.
During our first day at the clinical site we met with the staff, introduced ourselves to each other, and the staff at this meeting told us what roles and position each hold within the organization. We discussed the appropriate dress code during our clinical visits and what was expected of us as professional nurses and the representatives of the City Tech College. We discussed our goals with staff and what our mission was for that clinical is during this semester. I was always dressed professional in accordance to the dress code as delineated at our first meeting. It was important for me to portray a professional demeanor and to reassure the staff and the residents at this center that I can be count on and that I have a confidence in my abilities as a nurse. We had a leader appointed by our group members and I was chosen as a team leader of my clinical group. It was my responsibility to communicate with the recreation coordinator regarding our visits each week. I made sure to inform and keep our presentations on schedule, submit the topics and the dates of our presentations ahead of time to activity coordinator during our visits to senior citizen center. Our group worked closely with activity coordinator and social worker and made sure that we work together to ensure residents receive the services they need while meeting and accomplishing our goals. Communication was our number one priority and a key in ensuring a successful clinical experience.
I believe that I successfully met this objective. I demonstrated the core values of professionalism by wearing professional attire, punctuality by arriving and leaving on time, having my school ID present with me at all times and having my equipment with me all the time. Also I strictly followed HIPAA regulation policy by maintain confidentiality of the residents. And I strictly adhered to the guidelines and followed policy of the senior center where all the residents and visitors who wished to get their blood pressure measured had to sign an informed consent form and a log shit before the blood pressure screening. I always maintained ethical conduct and put my best face forward.
Objective 2: Employ analytical and critical thinking skills when providing care to individuals and families in the community setting.
Each week the activity coordinator would inform us of the activities that were going on at the center or the presentations that are going to be held, as well as of the residents who are in need of our assessment at their residence. These residents were hospitalized or were away during their rehabilitation period and now they back at their home and they need to be assessed to see what new needs they might have at this time. But most of the time recreation coordinator wanted us to perform a blood pressure screenings and home friendly visits. Upon assessment of residents I realized that teaching intervention was needed for – instance they needed more education regarding their diet and blood pressure medication adherence.
An assessment of the client always had additional concerns as we continued along. For me was very important to build a rapport with the resident that helped to establish a relationship and made him or her feel comfortable enough to talk to me about their concerns. Thinking critically to me means that I simply shouldn’t accept information as true, applicable or correct, until I analyze all the aspects rationally and objectively and only with open mind rich a conclusion. I provided my clients with information and made referrals. For – instance during our friendly home visits I had a chance to talk with my clients, and I tried to my best knowledge address their concerns. The staff who works there are very receptive and residents get interdisciplinary care. During our initial visit on the day of orientation staff expressed the importance of educational presentations about healthier diet and physical activities.
Applying our analytical skills we examined the details and the importance of the topics, what caused the high blood pressure, or what are the consequences of unhealthy diet choices and not being physically active were. So we addressed in our power point presentations dash diet and stress related concerns, as well as nutritious diet choices. I believe that I met this objective by the ability to recognize problems and raise questions, gather evidence to support answers and solutions, evaluate alternative solutions, and communicate effectively with others to implement solutions for the best possible outcomes and this is thinking analytically and critically while providing care to our clients.
Objective 3: Effectively communicate regarding the health needs of individuals and families in the community setting.
In any community setting effective communication is a vital tool required for communication purposes especially when working with a diverse population such as this one. Nurses need to be able to deliver culturally competent and professional care. In order for residents to feel and be more receptive to our care we were able to communicate with them on the language that they speak or understand. We made our information easy to understand without using difficult medical terminology. The first thing that we did was finding out what knowledge do they have before our teaching can take place. I felt that I successfully met this objective. First let me start by saying that I am fluent in another language as well as my teammates so we had not encountered any problems in terms of communication because either of us was were able to translate back and forth between the resident and a caregiver which is us. And how do I know if the communication was successful, because in order for the communication to be successful it needs to have two phases, the transmission and the feedback phase. The transmission phase was us, the senders teaching our clients and presenting information to them in form of language, symbols. And the feedback phase was the receivers our residents who actively listened and then asked or answered questions and commented on the topic, which means that the message was received and absorbed.
Objective 4: Establish environment conductive to learning and use a plan for learners based on evidence based practice.
During every visit to the center we had an opportunity to educate these residents. The opportunity presented itself during regular blood pressure screenings when we realized that residents in need of teaching intervention regarding their hypertension medications, nutrition, stress management. I was always very approachable and friendly during my visits to the center and always ready to perform my duties whatever was requested of me that day. In our group presentations we selected topics that were concerned with the elderly population and who resides in this community. We carefully selected the content and the words that we used in our presentations by using simple terms with pictures in order for our audience to benefit from these presentations and from the information that was provided to them. It was an opportunity for us nurses to learn from the residents whether they grasp the information from it. We did a pole of questions before and after that was our assessment of our audience to see whether they know the information that is or was presented.
We learned from their reaction that they enjoyed listening and at the end of our presentations they raised their hands and answered our questions and some even came up to us after to ask their questions. I think that I met this objective together with my
teammates, we had a working station with a laptop, projector and big screen for our audience that was provided to us by activity coordinator. There was very nice acoustic sound so that everyone can hear us, we used microphone, good lightning all of these helped us to establish conductive atmosphere for residents to learn.
Objective 5: Utilized informational technology when managing individual and families in the community.
Staff at our center utilized technology and used electronic records when accessing the resident information, but it was done only by staff members and not by us. On those occasions when we did our home visits staff was updating computer information on their residents and handed to us a paper application to fill out which they were entering into the system updating residents information later on. Patient information was provided to us by the social worker at that center. Informational technology was utilized by our team to conduct research for the presentations that we did at the center. We used our computers to create power point presentations and share it by sending as an attachment to activity coordinator and also shared it with residents by displaying it on the screen. In addition to that I was in contact with my teammates through the email correspondence.
Objective 6: Demonstrate a commitment to professional development.
My commitment to professional development is a clear cut I am here back to school pursuing Baccalaureate Degree in Nursing learning and enhancing my knowledge. I feel that once in this field we as professional representatives are and always will be students, always will be learning new things and enhancing our knowledge. During my Associate Degree Program I went through a series of certification programs such as PALS, ACLS, BCLS, NRP and few more. And this is not all, for the future I would like to go for my MSN and I feel that there are endless opportunities for us in the field of nursing. I take advantage any time there is an educational opportunity is presented to me for instance as this one, or online classes, or classes at the campus. I subscribe a various nursing magazines and journals to know and learn about how nursing is changing over time and what’s new in today’s days and to stay informed. This class was an educational experience for me.
Objective 7: Incorporate professional nursing standards and accountability into practice.
I utilized American Nurses Association standards in my clinical by practicing safely efficiently and within the scope of my professional practice. I complied with this center standards of practice in accordance with HIPAA regulations and requirements during blood pressure screenings or when visiting residents at home and when recording blood pressure readings through signed an informed consent form that clients sign beforehand. I am accountable for my own actions in the residential senior center by practicing safely and within my scope of practice. To avoid any problems and to provide competent professional care I would consult my clinical instructor or the staff members in case there of a problem or a concern raised by the resident.
Objective 8: Collaborate with clients, significant support persons and members of the health care.
I was able to provide client-care based on client needs and interventions by collaborating with the other staff members at the center involved in that client care. Based on my assessment I was able to identify health care needs for the residents, by referring them to appropriate parties such as primary care provider for consultation regarding blood pressure medications. Due to the concerns these residents expressed to me of medication not being effective, or for not complying with medication regimen or not being effective. I made referrals to social workers regarding their needs in home attendant services if they just got back home from the hospital and unable to take care of themselves at the moment. I was able to emphasize to residents the importance of adhering to not only blood pressure medications, but medications in general and to make appropriate lifestyle changes such as healthier diet getting adequate sleep and smoking cessation as well as importance of physical activity. I also helped residents on how to connect with the right staff, where to go to get the information about resources that this community has to offer and how they can benefit from it.
Objective 9: Recognize the impact of economic, political, social and demographic forces that affect the delivery of health care services.
I recognize gaps in the system by researching the ethnic, educational levels as well as socioeconomic levels of the residents. Our goal the CHN nurse is to helping residents with resource allocation and making appropriate referrals. I talked to residents about preventive measurements, health screenings that they can take advantage of at their community or even at the center having professionals who come to their center with portable machines and it’s free of charge. After assessing the population I learned that not all residents have Medicate some only have Medicare which makes it harder for them to receive certain services or care. So I referred to social worker and financial representative who work at the site where they can sit down and discuss the needs and how to resolve an issue. Perhaps other solutions they can also refer them and address elders’ needs on how to obtain Medicaid or help with their financial situation. I educated them on the importance of obtaining information where to go and to be proactive. And if someone is incapable, then with the help of professional personnel their needs whether it is a financial or medical issue can be met a solution can be found.
Summary:
This clinical showed me nursing from another perspective. Here I learned who is a community nurse and what’s her duties represent. A community health nurse has similar qualifications to a typical registered nurse, but her role involves much more community – centered activities and preventative care than that of an RN. Also rather than focusing just on one patient a public health or community nurse works more with health research serving a diverse population, she is advising and monitoring the entire group or aggregate. If there is any outbreaks in the community and when Center of Disease control informs the community nurse looks at strategies and evidence – based information to inform the public and prevent a local outbreak. Also I learned that public health nurse or a community nurse is very passionate about patient’s advocacy. Having said that she or he believes to have responsibility to communicate with local, state and federal political and community leaders about the health needs or conditions of the local community, state or public in general.
Community nurses work in variety of settings, for – instance health clinics and a variety of screenings, she plays a role in media – driven campaigns to inform and educate the community on current health problems. She works at immunization clinics, does home visits, works at the senior citizen centers and many other different settings to needs of the public identify and target specific segments of the at-risk population. Community nursing could be just the thing, a direction in which future healthcare is going to be moving towards. That is why it required of us, professional nurses to go and get a higher education by completing our BSN, MSN degrees and it doesn’t have to stop here, some even obtain Doctorate degrees, so that with obtained knowledge we can provide our community and its people with the professional, competent and best care there is.
