Career Planning and Professional Identity Paper

Clinical Nursing Roles Essay-Example

NUR 350

Format: Approximately 5-8 typed pages, in Word.docx format (template available in Writing Resource Module)

Reflective Career Planning Grade: 15 percent of final course grade Due date: See Course Schedule

This assignment provides the opportunity for you to sit and think about your current career and mindfully reflect on your values and potential contributions as a bachelor’s prepared nurse. Reflect and write down the major roles in which you participate in as a nurse. Review the Grading Rubric for additional guidance.(Clinical Nursing Roles Essay-Example)

As you develop your assignment, be sure to write down all of your ideas first and then go back to revise. Please be sure to READ YOUR FINAL SUBMISSION OUT LOUD TO CATCH ERRORS. Remember, the Writing Resource Center is available for assistance and support.

Part I: Introduction:

Provide a short description of how you arrived at the point of your career you are now. Include what influenced you for a career in nursing, positions, choices made.(Clinical Nursing Roles Essay-Example)

Part II: Current Roles:(Clinical Nursing Roles Essay-Example)

Describe your current roles and provide examples in terms of these three roles: Clinical, Education, and Leadership.

• Clinical nursing roles (ie, Med/Surg, OR, ICU nurse or surgical nurse)
• Education roles (i.e., Preceptor, teaching your patients, other teaching experiences that you participate in)
• Leadership experiences and characteristics (ie. formal and informal leadership examples, patient advocacy, nurse leader, manager, clinical resource nurse, committee rep. Review what a leader is…)

Part III: Levels of Competence:

After describing your roles as an educator, leader and clinician, review the assigned reading regarding Dreyfus’ 5 stages of skill acquisition. Consider where you are at in these roles (clinical, education, and leadership) and why you are a novice, competent, proficient, or other. Apply the Dreyfus model as outlined by Benner to describe your level of competence/expertise for each role. Explain why you selected the level of competence/expertise for each of your roles by providing examples and citing specific parts of Benner’s theories.(Clinical Nursing Roles Essay-Example)

Part IV: Professional Identity:

• How would you describe yourself as a professional nurse, and the contributions you bring to the healthcare team?
• How do your core values as a nurse influence you as a professional nurse? (Refer to Yellowdig posts and reflect on that activity)(Clinical Nursing Roles Essay-Example)
• Provide an example(s) of how your core values contribute to being sensitive to the values of others.
• How do you see your practice evolving as you obtain your bachelor’s degree?

Evaluation Criteria: APA 7 style format, citations and references, organization, proofreading for content, spelling, grammar. Please review the Grading Rubric for specific point allocation for each Part.

Criteria: APA 7 style format, citations and references, organization, proofreading for content, spelling, grammar. Please review the Grading Rubric for specific point allocation for each Part.(Clinical Nursing Roles Essay-Example)

I will complete Part 1; Introduction.

Part II please include: Clinical nursing role is postpartum nurse

Education roles include preceptor to new employees and nursing students.

Leadership experiences include being a postpartum nurse educator. Educating new nurses in the field.

PartIII: Novice or competent, only have been an RN for a year now.

Part IV:

Career Planning and Professional Identity Paper- Sample Solution

Part I: Introduction:Clinical Nursing Roles Essay-Example

Part II: Current Roles

Clinical Nursing Role

(Clinical Nursing Roles Essay-Example)I am a postpartum nurse at the practice site, working with mothers and their children after delivery. My primary responsibility is adopting my range of skills to care for this population, including monitoring for complications in mothers and babies and educating and supporting the patients and their families. Core responsibilities in helping with recovery after delivery include evaluating for postpartum hemorrhage, assessing whether epidurals or anesthesia have worn off before moving the patient, facilitating skin-to-skin bonding, monitoring vital signs, helping new parents with recovery through wound care, physical assistance, and medication administration, and conducting newborn assessments like blood draws and first bath (Hamlin, 2022). Additionally, I educate mothers and families on newborn care, breastfeeding, and postpartum recovery strategies and offer breastfeeding assistance and emotional support. Effective communication, teaching skills, empathy, listening, and physical stamina are some of the essential career traits that help me to perform these roles.(Clinical Nursing Roles Essay-Example)

Education Roles

I partake in preceptor roles at the practice site, teaching and supporting new employees and nursing students. The goal is to prepare aspiring nurses because I have the experience and expertise to help new nurses and nursing students navigate the healthcare environment and develop the practice experience necessary to become professional nurses (Wilkes University, 2021). I work closely with students during clinical rotations to help translate theoretical learning into clinical practice. I work with nurses and students at all levels of nursing education, including those with Master’s, Bachelor’s, and Post-Graduate degrees. Moreover, I mentor students and new nurses to encourage mutual professional growth via dynamic and supportive relationships. Career traits that support my education roles include enthusiasm for teaching, passion for nursing, ability to promote autonomy, ability to offer constructive feedback, and empathy.(Clinical Nursing Roles Essay-Example)

Leadership Experiences and Characteristics

Leadership experiences include being a postpartum nurse educator and educating new nurses. Preceptors need excellent leadership skills to support and guide new nurses and nursing students through the practice environment(Clinical Nursing Roles Essay-Example). Leadership traits that promote my preceptor roles include possessing and demonstrating broad knowledge, the ability to describe the basis of action and decisions, and answering questions clearly and concisely (Wilkes University, 2021). I am open to conflicting ideas and opinions, can connect theoretical or specific information to broader concepts, and communicate clear goals and expectations. Additionally, I am a humble, emphatic, easily approachable, and inspiring preceptor who adopts a transformational leadership style, expecting the best from the nurses and students I work with.(Clinical Nursing Roles Essay-Example)

Part III: Levels of Competence

The Dreyfus model demonstrates how people progress through several knowledge and skills acquisition levels, including novice, competent, proficient, expert, and master levels. Per this model, I am a competent clinician, preceptor, and novice leader. I have been an RN for over a year and have gained enough practice, experience, and competence. As a clinician, I base most of my decisions and judgment on previous experience, although I still refer back to the rules and adopt analytical processes (Mangiante & Peno, 2021). Notably, I now deal with complex practice problems, and it is more challenging to adhere to a textbook script because of situational differences, which demand critical thinking. I am more oriented to problem-solving and integrating personal judgment to prioritize elements. I am also more emotionally invested in clinical activities, taking greater responsibility for success and failure in the practice environment.(Clinical Nursing Roles Essay-Example)

I am a competent educator, working with several new nurses and nursing students. As a preceptor, I adopt my learned experience and personal judgment to guide students through clinical activities. I also adopt context-free principles, concepts, and situational elements to understand the new nurses and students I work with. Additionally, I can select rules and perspectives suitable for different situations and take responsibility for my decisions (Mangiante & Peno, 2021). I focus more on what is crucial in different situations because the number of potentially relevant elements and factors I can recognize is overwhelming. However, I still rely on instructions, despite integrating learned experience, to develop teaching plans, easing understanding and decision-making. Situations differ in multiple ways, and it is challenging to prepare a list of possible ones that would require my intervention as an educator; hence it is impossible to predefine strategies for each situation. Therefore, integrating the experience into instructions helps select plans and perspectives that are more important and appropriate in each teaching instance.(Clinical Nursing Roles Essay-Example)

My only leadership experience as a postpartum nurse is being a preceptor working with new nurses and nursing students. I consider myself a novice leader because I have a long way to go to attain competency and proficiency in leadership. More leadership opportunities and experiences would be integral in achieving higher development levels. As a leader, I rely on the analytical process to decide the course of action in problem-solving (Mangiante & Peno, 2021). Although I am a novice in leadership, I am committed to my preceptor role because I want my students to succeed and be well-prepared for future nursing roles. Most leadership decisions I make are based on rules and evidence-based guidelines, hoping to gain more experience to integrate into the decision-making process.(Clinical Nursing Roles Essay-Example)

Part IV: Professional Identity

Professional healthcare providers, including postpartum nurses, are integral to patients’ lives (Poorchangizi et al., 2019). I am a dedicated, self-driven, motivated, and goal-oriented postpartum nurse seeking to enhance the health and well-being of mothers, babies, and their families. Besides, I am a nurse who expects the best from everyone and will give the best in every situation to promote optimal outcomes. Giving birth is an amazing experience and a crucial life stage for the mother and the baby that I always want to be part of and provide the best care. (Clinical Nursing Roles Essay-Example)Additionally, I am compassionate, empathetic, and emotionally available for my patients. I also promote holistic care to ease and quicken the recovery processes and reduce the stay between delivery and discharge from the hospital. Moreover, I work well with teams and am collaborative and an effective communicator, which is needed in the delivery room to ensure the highly dangerous procedure is successful and promote the safety of the mother and the baby. Generally, I love my work as a professional nurse and will continue to demonstrate professionalism in patient care.(Clinical Nursing Roles Essay-Example)

My core values as a nurse include empathy, autonomy, altruism, accountability, compassion, and curiosity. In my practice, I also treat people with dignity and ensure integrity, honesty, and social justice. These core values promote professionalism, which entails respecting patients’ interests, promoting humanism, practicing social responsibility, and being sensitive to other people’s values, backgrounds, cultures, worldviews, and preferences (Cao et al., 2023). Furthermore, I have high standards of competence and knowledge and demonstrate high ethical standards guided by my moral practices and the nursing ethical code of standards. My core values as a nurse serve as the foundation of my professional practice, informing my actions, decisions, and relationships with patients and co-workers. For instance, patients in the delivery room are often overwhelmed with pain and emotions, and values like empathy, compassion, and respect for human dignity allow me to understand the patient and be sensitive to their needs and values. Some patients value privacy, while others require a family member’s emotional support. Being empathetic allows me to relate to the patient‘s circumstances and create an environment that promotes the best care and enhances the patient experience.(Clinical Nursing Roles Essay-Example)

I want to achieve proficiency and mastery of skills and knowledge acquisition in nursing practice. I have over one year of experience as a clinical nurse and would like to gain more experience, knowledge, and skills to achieve my career goals and objectives. Attaining a Bachelor’s degree means I am more knowledgeable about patient care technology, research, evidence-based practice, health promotion, and healthcare system safety and quality (Maddocks, 2022). Moreover, the degree enhances my career readiness because I can critically evaluate clinical situations and be a more effective nurse. I can integrate and balance research, personal experience, patient values, and clinical knowledge to make better clinical decisions. Additionally, acquiring the degree implies that I am a career-focused nurse who wants to grow to a higher level and be more influential in nursing practice and patient care, with more ability and capacity to engage in decisions and advocate for my patients and profession.(Clinical Nursing Roles Essay-Example)

References

Cao, H., Song, Y., Wu, Y., Du, Y., He, X., Chen, Y., Wang, Q., & Yang, H. (2023). What is nursing professionalism? A concept analysis. BMC Nursing, 22(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-022-01161-0

Hamlin, K. (2022, November 29). What is a postpartum nurse? | Nursejournal.org. NurseJournal. https://nursejournal.org/careers/postpartum-nurse/

Maddocks, K. G. (2022, October 6). What is a BSN? Is there a difference between an RN and a BSN? Southern New Hampshire University – On-Campus & Online Degrees | SNHU. https://www.snhu.edu/about-us/newsroom/health/what-is-a-bsn

Mangiante, E. M. S., & Peno, K. (Eds.). (2021). Teaching and Learning for Adult Skill Acquisition: Applying the Dreyfus and Dreyfus Model in Different Fields. IAP.

Poorchangizi, B., Borhani, F., Abbaszadeh, A., Mirzaee, M., & Farokhzadian, J. (2019). The importance of professional values from nursing students’ perspective. BMC Nursing, 18(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-019-0351-1

Wilkes University. (2021, June 17). Preceptors needed: The 10 benefits of being a preceptor. Online Nursing Programs | Wilkes University Online. https://onlinenursingdegrees.wilkes.edu/preceptors-needed-10-benefits-being-preceptor/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/(Clinical Nursing Roles Essay-Example)