As mentioned by some of the nurses in the movie, one thing I would love to work on is the skill of being “intentional.” Oftentimes, we are so caught up in completing tasks that we forget to sit down and get to know more about our patients and their needs. By learning how to prioritize and being able to delegate certain duties to the appropriate personnel I think would give me more time to allot for building that rapport with my patients. I have not had the privilege of working with an oncology population as a student at UNE. This is a very delicate specialty where patients are fighting for their life day in and day out. Some barriers to care for this population can be a lack of resources to pay for their treatments and/or procedures. Lack of support experienced by the patients. I have someone close to me who has had to fight breast cancer and I am beyond astonished as how resilient she is. Through the film, I captured that same sense of selflessness from the other folk. Especially the nurse who after being diagnosed with cancer herself who continued to serve and help on the oncology unit. For this specific nurse, she was very aware of her own beliefs, experiences, and values and used them to help her provide quality care for her patients. 

The video presentation from UNE’s career services really inspired me to do some prep work before applying and interviewing with different organizations. I think it would be extremely helpful to research each individual mission statement to see if it is a good fit for my life too. I liked that Whitney explained that during the interview not only will the hiring committee be asking me questions but that it is also very important that I come with questions to ask the interviewers. I have started to look into some questions for organizations such as, “How do you nurture psychological safety in your team/organization?”, “Is there room for growth/promotion within your team? What does that process look like?” I do intend to meet with a career services center representative at some point or meet with my fellow classmates and do some mock interviews to feel more comfortable being in that position.

One of my strengths that I am most proud of is my willingness to lead. I would support this claim by explaining how I typically lead our group projects by being transparent and openly communicating, setting up meeting times, as well as boundaries and expectations from each other so that we can complete the task at hand. Moreover, during a Cor Health pediatric simulation, I was in a room with six other classmates and the instructor explained a scenario where our patient (mannikin) had just experienced a seizure on a football field and left it open for us to see what we would do. After a minute of silence and nervousness I decided to jump in and lead the scenario. I focused first on the patient, helped lay him on his side and protected his head, then I began to delegate tasks, asking my classmates to call 911, bring oxygen, and for someone to time the seizure. A weakness that I struggle with is finding when to say “no” to someone. While working as a nursing tutor I have been approached by faculty regarding possible upcoming exam review sessions for their students. Of course I agreed, I became a tutor for that reason, to help my fellow peers be successful in their nursing education, however with the exam review sessions plus my own coursework/exams, my other part time job on the weekends and trying to balance some self care I became stressed out and overwhelmed.  To mitigate this issue I began looking at my schedule more closely and prioritized different tasks in order to better balance my life. 

Sources:

“Nurses: If Florence Could See Us Now.” , The Video Project. Alexander Street. https://video.alexanderstreet.com/watch/nurses-if-florence-could-see-us-now.

(Image) https://www.peoplematters.in/article/life-at-work/self-development-at-work-heres-how-24385