Nursing Career Reflection - Essay Example

? Nursing Career Reflection Essay Nursing Career Reflection Essay Nursing as a medical field entails several characteristics in order to become effective in terms of service as well as personal growth. While the supervisors are mostly accountable for the behavior of their staff, I personally believe that as nurse staffs, we must also be proactive in our own growth in the field as well. Our recognition of our strengths and weaknesses can help in giving us an idea of how to adjust our attitudes, behaviors, and way on thinking in dealing with our everyday work. By doing so, us nurses can be more effective in giving care to our patients as well as being indispensable members of our affiliated medical group. Aside from performing well in our tasks, we must also be able to initiate better changes and developments on how we deliver our services. Being able to come up with effective and efficient measures in helping our patients is a big step both in adding value to our work as well as empowering ourselves with additional responsibilities in the nursing field. Also, by letting us become a part of the decisions not only would help in our career growth, but also in our own personal discovery (Kleinman, 2004). And the first step for this is by having a chance to look at how leadership works and thrives in our field. In order to be competent in leadership, I would have to accept additional tasks that stimulate the brain, such as problem-solving tasks or additional leadership work. It was reported that by having such additional tasks could enhance career growth among nursing staff, as well as empowerment, which in turn increases their retention in the field (Krugman & Smith, 2003). Also, I would ask concerned supervisors to hold meetings that aim to let the staff speak their thoughts and ideas to their superiors, and have them evaluated for soundness. I believe that doing so would not only give us the chance to use our heads to develop solutions, but also to give us a chance to be a part of the team, most especially to us who have the need to feel that our person and our abilities are relevant to the overall performance of the whole team. Doing so would also help us to become empowered, as well as having a sense of satisfaction in what we do and how we do it. Letting the nurse staff participate in such aspects of the work was reported to improve the morale of the staff, making them perform over the normal standard in providing care to patients (Contino, 2004). In order to arrive at my personal goal of being successful in the field of nursing, I opted to have my strengths and weaknesses identified, so that I could find out what I do best as well as to see which areas I need to improve to become better. And also, by finishing by degree in nursing as well as finishing a Master’s Degree in Public Health with Informatics not only can I contribute to the modernization of some aspects of nursing in where I work, but also to become a nursing manager being able to inspire and motivate people, as much as my own mentors do to me. I was able to check the levels of my knowledge in different areas of the nursing field using the Nurse Manager Inventory Tool (American Organization of Nurse Executives, 2006). Upon completing the checklist of the characteristics of effective nursing managers, with the help of my supervisor I was able to deduce what areas of improvement to focus on, and what areas I do well in. After answering the checklist, I found out that while I could say I am competent in the science and art domains since these are mostly sourced from available reading materials, the leadership aspects of being an effective nurse manager learning domain framework such as personal accountability, career planning, personal journey disciplines and optimizing leadership potential could still need expansion. I could attribute this to the fact that I am usually given responsibilities of staff nurses but not much more complex tasks. Also, leadership is not something written in most books, but is rather an experience that must be lived in to learn effectively how to guide and manage people, as well as being able to turn them into the best people that they can be. Thus I plan to become more proactive in this aspect by asking my supervisor to allow me to take part in some of their tasks aside from performing my assigned tasks while on duty. For me, being able to see such work could give me an idea to the reasons behind certain actions done by the management, since we staff nurses do not see these things that much. Such supervisors’ work may include budget allotment tasks, filing of records, etc., or as simple as posting the shifting schedules for the month. While it may not seem a lot, for me it is a challenge and a chance to learn the ins and outs of being a supervisor and a leader, as well as finding out for myself the most effective ways of leading people and working with people. Another is that because there would be additional exposure to different kinds of management styles, I could assess which would be the most effective ones in motivating and empowering staff nurses. To summarize, in terms of leadership qualities, due to some aspects of my work I would need to have increased workload that is involved in managerial work, aside from letting my colleagues and I participate in discussions regarding to the team’s plan of action. This would be a lot of help in my own personal and career growth because it could give me a different view of the leadership aspect in nursing. Also, by letting me take on or take part in such tasks not only gives me a chance to use my abilities in a stimulating way, but also to empower my feelings of being an important member of our medical team. References American Organization of Nurse Executives. (2006). Nurse manager skills directory. Retrieved from http://www.aone.org/resources/leadership%20tools/PDFs/NMSL_BrochureFINAL.pdf Contino, D. (2004). Leadership competencies: knowledge, skills, and aptitudes nurses need to lead organizations effectively. Critical Care Nurse, 24 (3): 52-64. Kleinman, C. (2004). The relationship between managerial leadership behaviors and staff nurse retention. Hospital Topics, 82 (4): 2-10. Krugman, M., & Smith, V. (2003). Charge nurse leadership development and evaluation. Journal of Nursing Administration, 33 (5): 284-292. Read More