Areas of Nursing, Personal Reflection, and Coping Strategies

Nursing Trends and Issues

Areas of Nursing

It has long been mentioned that the nursing profession is not for everyone. The job requires those who are intelligent, reliable as well as compassionate to deal with the ills of the world. Any nurse is often exhausted at the end of the day. This is due to the duty of maintaining the well-being as well as the health of the entire planet.  It is for these reasons that I have grown to love the profession. As such, there are three areas of the nursing profession that thrills me. They include Hemodialysis Nurse, Palliative Nurseas well as Nurse Midwife.

1. Hemodialysis Nurse

For one to become a Hemodialysis Nurse, they need to have some formal education. Ideally, the people in this career are trained to help with the treatment of kidney dialysis. They monitor the balance of patients and provide advice to the patients about their care. They work in hospitals, medical offices, as well as clinics (Hale, 2018). For one to gain employment as a Hemodialysis Nurse, they need to have an Associate's or bachelor's degree in nursing (Coventry Telegraph). Acquired knowledge, as well as training experience concerning human kidney, is a requirement for a Hemodialysis Nurse. They are some medical facilities that provide pre-employment examinations.

Furthermore, one has to be a licensed nurse under the relevant bodies in various provinces and completion of the Northern/Southern Alberta Hemodialysis program (Hemodialysis LPNs.” N.d.p.2). Moreover, becoming a dialysis nurse can be viewed as a series of lifelong and development of skills (Coventry Telegraph). It is thus vital that one upgrades their education, so they gain more knowledge about patient care.

1. Palliative Nurse

Palliative care involved helping individuals who are living with life-threatening illnesses as well as those who are affected by their diagnosis so they can realize the best quality of life. Apart from offering care and support to the patients, palliative nurses also help the family members to deal with the trying and tedious as well as depressing moments that they could face when their relative is suffering from terminal conditions.  The skills that one needs to gain employment as a palliative nurse include sensitivity and understanding, ability to team with a team, excellent communication skills as well as patience, and ability to work under pressure. Furthermore, a Bachelor's degree is not a requirement for a palliative care nurse. An AND could also allow someone to secure employment in this sector. Even so, it is a must that one passes the NCLEX-RN exam. In some settings, LPN or LVN is accepted (Coventry Telegraph).

1. Nurse Midwife

Nurse-midwives are the nursing specialists who are often involved with pregnancy, labor, as well as the postpartum issues. A nurse-midwife is often involved with the mothers to ensure their safety during the delivery process. Furthermore, they are also concerned with the safety of the newborn child. For one to gain employment as a nurse-midwife, they need to have earned a Master of Science Degree in Nursing (MSN) (Dinç, 2015). Some of the skills that a nurse-midwife needs to have to gain employment in practice include excellent communication skills, critical thinking, as well as social perceptiveness. Furthermore, some use other paths to seek employment as nurse-midwives(Coventry Telegraph). Once a student has graduated from a four years bachelor's program and gained a one-year experience as registered nurses, they can apply for the postgraduate certificate program, which takes a much shorter time compared to the Master's degree.

Personal Reflection

My licensed practical nursing program has provided me with immense experiences that would allow me to succeed in my transition. For one to work as a Licensed Practical Nurse there are specific skills and competencies that they need to have. These include compassion, patience, stamina, as well as communication and detail orientation. These are skills that my educational program has offered me in great detail. In my program, I have been taught how to care for patients. On has to be compassionate since the job comes down to looking after patients (Wolf et al., 2017). It is upon me to ensure that the patients are as comfortable as possible. Furthermore, my course prioritizes communication skills.  LPNs need to communicate with the patients on many occasions as well as the RNs to understand the condition of the patients. And it is a skill that I have learned. Patients could turn out to be annoying when they are in much pain, and thus as an LPN student, this is a skill that I have gained.

 My clinical practice provided me with a lot of insight that I believe would be a handful when transitioning to full practice. Studying nursing especially for a person like me who does not have any experience in nursing back home is tough. It requires a lot of energy and time. Professionalism and critical thinking are vital. One of the skills that clinical will help you to develop by practice. One of the incidents during my clinical practice that proved to be pivotal was my engagement with a patient who was suffering from severe stomach pain. The patient was admitted to the unit and had challenges with verbal communication. The critical problem was that there was some of the information about the patient that was missing. And thus, this made my job difficult. I could not understand what the patient liked or disliked since, by the time I started my clinical in the unit, he was already having the problems.

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An incident like this will put you in the situation that you will be needing the help of their family member and other care team member. Being a good team player is very important and will help make the job easy for everyone. At all given times, patient care has to be ahead of our interests (Abd, Elsayed & Tumah, 2018).

From these occasions, I realized that those with learning challenges usually have a problem when trying to adapt to new situations. There is often the chance for problematic behavior when they are faced with something that angers them as the nurse did. I believe that it is upon the healthcare staff to ensure that they learn how to interact with those who have communication disabilities. It can be done through the learning of nonverbal communication skills. Furthermore, before the admission of a patient, it is upon the nurse to take down the patient's details, including the likes and likes, and ensure that when they leave, they pass them to the next nurse in charge (Abd, Elsayed & Tumah, 2018). Be on the floor is not that easy as we read and study in school. Big difference because dealing with real patients and knowing that this people lives are relying on you. However, all the knowledge and knowing the foundation of nursing will help us to succeed in this profession.

Coping Strategies

According to Gustems-Carnicer, Calderón, & Calderón-Garrido (2019), coping occurs as a response to psychological stress. It is often initiated by the changes to keep level the mental health as well as the emotional wellbeing. As a nursing student, I have had to deal with long hours in school and such I can say that it has stressed me. Even so, it is widely known that stresses play a significant role in the daily life of everyone. Some learn to manage stress, while for some, they are placed under medication.  In as much transitioning to the advanced level of education is something to be happy about, I feel that the positive change could be a life stressor for me.  Coping styles includes the adaptive and maladaptive style.

For my transitioning into the advanced nursing education, there are several strategies that I shall use to ensure that I deal with the stressor.  At the onset, I will use the strategy of seeking support. Some people have undergone an advanced nursing study. I believe that they have the skills as well as the knowledge that comes with their experience in the schools. As such, I will seek emotional support from them. I believe that by having that emotional conversation with them and narrating how they managed to overcome the challenges, I will be able to overcome the stressors. Furthermore, I shall seek support from the family members and friends to help with the progress.

We all understand that work without play makes Jack a dull boy. Therefore, I believe that physical recreation will also be useful in helping me to deal with the stressor of transitioning to the advanced level of education. As such, I will be involved in physical exercises such as running and team sports. Activities such as Yoga are also essential in the process of relaxing the mind (Abd, Elsayed & Tumah, 2018).

References

• “Applications for nursing courses fall.” Coventry Telegraph Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/2022031119?accountid=1331
• Abd, A. H., elsayed, S., & Tumah, H. (2018). Occupational stress, coping strategies, and psychological‐related outcomes of nurses working in psychiatric hospitals. Perspectives in Psychiatric Care, 54(4), 514-522.
• Dinç, L. (2015). Implementation and evaluation of a nursing ethics course at turkish doctoral nursing programs. Journal of Academic Ethics, 13(4), 375-387.
• Gustems-Carnicer, J., Calderón, C., & Calderón-Garrido, D. (2019). Stress, coping strategies and academic achievement in teacher education students: ATEE journal. European Journal of Teacher Education, 42(3), 375-390.
• Hemodialysis LPNs (n.d). Retrieved from https://insite.albertahealthservices.ca/Main?assets/hr/tms-hr-lpn-hemodialysis.pdf#search=hemodialysis%20LPN
• Wolf, L. A., Delao, A. M., Perhats, C., Moon, M. D., & Carman, M. J. (2017). The experience of advanced practice nurses in US emergency care settings: JEN JEN. Journal of Emergency Nursing, 43(5), 426-434.