Each time I feel like I try a new strategy. This is my way of finding out what works best for me I guess. This time my strategy was to not have a strategy. I made sure to still have a testing environment set up with no distractions, but other than that I just did what felt right. At some points I would answer 20 questions without a break others I was taking a break every 2 or 3. It all depended on how I was feeling. I also tried to make sure that I was not changing my answers but also not that I was taking my time and reading thew all my options. I think of all the tests this is the one that I new the most content on. This is most likely due to the fact that I am currently in maternity and we are learning this content so it is fresh in my mind. Another reason is of all the topics, I am most interested in maternity so it comes a littles more easily to me. I did find that I was getting more frustrated while taking this exam because it seemed to be never ending and although I was able to reason through the questions as well as understanding why options where not correct, I struggled to find the ones that where correct. I kept getting caught up in the wording of the questions and trying to pick out individual words and ended up making it more complicated for myself. From this exam I learned that when it come time to take the NCLEX, I believe that I will be able to study and review a lot of the material that we have learned and be able to refresh my memories. This exam as well as the med-surge one where the freshest topics in my mind and thus the ones that I was able to recall more information on. I have found that these exams as extremely helpful in preparing me for the NCLEX as well as providing me with the topics that I need to refresh myself on.
Author: jtravassos (Page 2 of 2)
Going into this exam, I was more confident that I was going into the pharmacology one. Over the course of our time at UNE we have had three different medical-surgical classes and I felt as if I had a good understanding of the content. During this exam, I chose to try a new strategy. This time I was not scheduling breaks and I was going to make sure that I read each question carefully along with all the answers even if I knew the answer right away. This helped me greatly with this test because in the past I have been so quick to jump the gun and go with an answer that I thought was right and did not take the time to read the other options. Not scheduling breaks also allowed me to stay more concentrated on what I was doing and made it so I was actually less mentally fatigued. I think when you know a break is coming, you get lazier in your thinking and just try to get to that checkpoint where a break was planned. I took fewer breaks this time but took them at the right points when I knew my attention and quality of work was beginning to decline.
When it came to the content on this test, I felt that I was reletivly competent. On several occasions, I felt like I was failing and getting multiple questions wrong in a row. I seemed to have had almost all select all that apply questions and they came back to back. In other adaptive tests I have taken, there was only a hand full of select all that apply. On this exam, on the other hand, I think of the 75 questions I answered, 20 of them were select all that apply. This was discouraging because oftentimes I struggle with these questions and get 1/2 of 3/4 of the answers but not the whole question correct. After completing the exam and reviewing my test, I was rather proud of the fact that I got a significant amount of these questions correct. Next time I take an adaptive exam, the main thing I want to change is losing focus the closure I got to 75 questions. Knowing that this exam can shut off at 75 is something that is so fixed in my mind and all I can think about once I get to question 50. Luckily on this test, my exam did shut off at 75, but on the last one, it didn’t. When this happened I was overcome with this feeling of dread and shame that I was not smart enough to finish in 75 questions. I think it is important to realize that even if you finish in 200 questions, it does not indicate that you are incompetent or stupid. Overall I think this all comes down to confidence and trusting in my knowledge and knowing that if I do my best and take my time, the worst that can happen is that I have to remediate. Remediations at the end of the day are still a great learning experience and teach you more about a concept that you were clearly lacking knowledge of.
The NCLEX is looming closer and closer ever day it seems and there is still so much practice to be done. With this in mind I made sure to take this pharmacology exam as much like the NCLEX as I could. I went into a quiet place, no phone, no water, or food, and tried to create the best test like environment I could. I also went in with the plan to try and schedule breaks to prevent that mental fatigue that tends to accompany not only test taking but more so computerized tests. My plan was to take a break every 10 questions, but as the test went on, I started to forgo this method and just take short breaks when I felt the need rather than when they were scheduled. I found that when taking one every 10 questions I would either just being trying to rush threw to that time off or I would get on a roll and not want to lose that momentum by taking a break. I think that these learning curves and different test taking strategy are great to experiment with now because when it comes time for the NCLEX, I will have hopefully finetuned a stagey that works best for me.
This adaptive pharmacology test was more challenging than I initially expected. I had done pretty well in pharmacology and thought that I had a good grasp of a lot of different medications. Early on in this exam, I realized just how wrong my assumption had been. I would even go as far as saying that a majority of the medications were ones that I had not even heard of. Despite this, I was able to come to the correct answer to many questions by using my knowledge of the conditions. This allowed me to eliminate answers and get an idea of what the medication’s purpose was in relation to the client’s needs. This test was helpful in teaching that even if you may not understand every part of a question, you can use the pieces that you do understand as well as the options to make a well-informed selection. By the time I got to question 75, I was really hoping that my exam would shut off but unfortunately, it did not. Fortunately, my exam did shut off at 123 questions and not 265. Of those 123 questions, I got 84 correct and 39 wrong, all of which I remediated and was able to learn more about so I will hopefully not get them wrong in the future. The main lesson I would take away from this experience of not shutting off at 75 questions, is the fact that I should not bank on this happening. Once I reached question 76 my focus decreased, and I became frustrated with every subsequent question. If I had continued to take it one question at a time and given it my full attention and focus, I think I would have done better. Overall, I clearly need to study my pharmacologic information more going into my NCLEX and become more comfortable with adverse effects and contraindications of medications.
Choosing my subject was rather hard. There have been so many nurses threw out my life that I have viewed as leaders and looked up not only as nurses but also people. After some consideration, I finally decided that I was going to interview my high school vocational tech teacher. I was in a program called Allied Health that provided us with the skills needed to become Certified Nursing Assistance. She has been a nurse for over 15 years and works as a charge nurse in a local nursing home while also teaching up and coming nurses. My teacher has been working at the high school for the past 10 year and has inspired and helped create hundreds of nurses and other medical professions by inspiring us at such a young age. Over the four years I was in her program, I was able to see her many different qualities that make her such a great leader. First off, she is a compassionate and hardworking individual who inspires those around her to put forth the same effort. She is also kind and genuinely cares about the success of not only her students but also all her patients. To this day she will still check in with me and I know she does this with students that graduated years before me. That being said she also expects her students and coworkers to perform at their best at all times and has no issue telling you when you are not doing your best. One thing I distinctly remember is our first day of clinical in the nursing home. At the time sophomore year in high school I was still unsure if nursing was really what I wanted to do and if it would be something I was good at. She must have sensed this in my and while the rest of my classmates where preforming nail care and helping with feeds, I was paired up one-on-one with a former student of hers who was working at the facility. That day working through this assignment is when I fell in love with nursing and knew I was on the right path. She was able to provide me with that experience and has done this with pretty much all of her student. Of my graduating class from the program, 16 of us entered into nursing programs and the other 6 either went into other medical profession or did not go to college and countified to work as CNAs. The aspect of her leadership that is most inspiring is her drive and passion for what she is doing. She truly loves nursing and pays it forward to the profession by inspiring young nurses. Getting to work with her not only in the classroom but also in the clinical setting taught me the aspects that make someone a great nurse as well as leader. Going into this interview, I am excited to learn more about my teachers roles as a leader and how she views them. I’d also like to learn how she uses her leadership skills in the classroom versus the workplace and if they are similar and overlapping in approach’s. I am mostly looking forward to the opportunity to learn more about the leadership qualities in the person who inspired me to enter this profession
Going into the class, we were given the opportunity to watch the trailer to the documentary Nurses: If Florence Could See Us Now. The night before class I watched the trailer to get an idea of what to expect. Although the video was only a two-minute and forty-second snippet of the documentary, it drew me in and showed me how influential the profession of nursing is on people’s lives. After watching the whole documentary, I was filled with a sense of excitement to be able to enter such a privileged field. As a nurse, we get to support people through the hardest times of their life as well as some of the happiest. It is a rewarding field where every day you can walk home knowing that you made some sort of an impact. Everyone knows that death is a part of life and as a nurse, it is inevitable that you will see death. No matter what field of nursing you are in, death is likely. This is an aspect of nursing I don’t feel like anyone can really learn or prepare for before experiencing it. Even after experiencing a couple of losses I still feel that loss. I used to view it as a weakness or hindrance to what I’ll be able to achieve. That was until I realized from this documentary, that feeling these losses as well as success with patients only allow you to grow as a nurse and a person. I have always known that I wanted to be a nurse, and now more than ever, I know that this is true. As a nurse, I will never stop learning and growing as a person and the day that I no longer feel that way is the day I am no longer an asset to my patients. Overall, I loved this documentary and can see that although nursing has grown and improved over time it is still in its early phases and will continue to grow and change as more time passes. I think if Florence could see us now, she would be proud of how far we have come but also motivated to overcome what is still in front of us.
As senior year and my time at UNE comes to a fast-approaching end, I have spent a lot of time thinking, “what next?”. I have said for as long as I can remember that I want to be a labor and delivery nurse. After three weeks of maternity, I still feel that way, but I have yet to have my clinical rotation. I loved my time on the med surge and surgical floors and could see myself working in that area as well. It is a little overwhelming to see all the fields and opportunities you have once you become a nurse. I also fully believe you never know how you feel about something until you get in there and do it. During my practicum at Mercy, I worked with several people in the new grad program. After listening to their experience, I think that a new grad program is a way I want to go. That way I can get more experience and confidence in my nursing abilities as well as be more marketable later on in my career. To prepare I have set up an appointment with career services to work on my resume as well as practice my interview. I have never been the best person at selling myself or my skills so that is an aspect of the interview process that I need to work on. Being confident in your skills as well as knowing what your good at is different than being cocky. On the other hand, not being confident in yourself is almost worse than being overconfident. There is a balance or these skills and after listening to the interviewing presentation, I think I have an understanding of how to do this. You can admit your shortcomings and mistakes as long as you have a plan to improve on them and show self-awareness of what you need to improve on as well as what you are good at. Another aspect of the interview process that can set me apart is knowing the hospital’s mission statement and showing how I can fit into that mission. Along with that remaining upbeat and confident as well as engaged in conversation is something that can set me apart. I will be honest; the interview process has never been a strong suit of mine. I have great communication skills when it comes to patient interactions and on a more casual level, but when it comes to a high-stress situation I oftentimes become flustered and freeze up. With practice and building up the skills and confidence needed to interview, I know that I will be able to succeed and show what I can bring to a job. UNE’s nursing program has provided me with the skills and knowledge required to begin a career in nursing as well as my prior work experience as a CNA. I have always been able to interact well with patients and support their needs but now I have the knowledge and clinical thinking skills required to help them on a medical level as well.
It almost does not feel real that we are in our last semester of senior year. In six months, it is likely that myself and many, of my classmates will have sat for our boards and will be starting work as registered nurses. Everyone has always told me that college flies by but until now, sitting here reflecting on what I’m excited about, I never really saw how fast everything has gone by. I think the thing I am most excited about is seeing all the hard work and sacrifices pay off. For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to be a nurse and have never seen myself in a different profession and to be so close to achieving that goal is so exciting. At the same time though it makes me anxious. All I have known for the past 18 years is school and while the prospect of finally being done is so exciting, it is also terrifying because of the unknown. It is such a weird feeling to be at the point in life where the goals I have always been working toward are about to be achieved. It leaves me with this feeling of what now, where do I go from here? It is almost like as soon as I get excited thinking about being done, the anxiety creeps in and takes that excitement away. It is one of the weirdest feelings to try and explain. Ultimately though I think the excitement wins and with achieving my goals comes the opportunity to set new ones and continue to grow not only as a person but also as a professional. Another thing I’m excited about is making my parents proud. They have been such a strong support system for me threw out my life and always pushed me to do my best so I cannot wait to see the pride on their faced when I graduate. The only way I really want to celebrate is just hanging out with my family and having a nice dinner and just relax and be together. I had originally planned on taking a trip after passing my NCLEX but in this day and age I don’t really think traveling will be an option. That being said I still can’t think of a better way of celebrating than being with the people who helped me get to this point in my life.
I have never been a super organized person in the way that I tend to only looks at things on a week to week basis. By that I mean I never write out all my due dates and plan out what needs to be done in advance. I also usually sit down on the weekends and say I am going to do work all day and end up not getting anything done and get distracted because I am overwhelmed and unsure of where to start. This semester though, there is an overwhelming amount of assignments and dates that are important. After having all the classes and seeing all that needs to be done, I decided that I was going to change things up and be more organized. I made the goal that I was going to write all my assignments out and know what is due and set up a schedule for when I would get this stuff done. As I have started tackling work, I have been checking off the things that are finished and moving on to the next task. Although this semester is crazy busy, I also wanted to allow myself some time to relax and recharge, so my work was still at its best. This led me to the idea that on weekends I will wake up at around 0900 and do work until no later than 1500 and then give myself the rest of the day to relax and recharge without feeling guilty for not doing work. I think these goals will help me to succeed this semester and also make it, so I am accountable to myself. It is so easy to get overwhelmed in nursing school, but I am hoping my new organization and almost set schedule to work will allow me to fell not only successful but also give me the needed time for myself and to recharge.
As I have been writing this response, I have been taking the Nurse Logic 2.0 Modules. Going through the lessons, I was remembering the first time I went through them and noticing how much more I was gaining from them now with more overall nursing knowledge than I had first time around. For example in the first module about nursing and clinical judgement I remember thinking at the time that I learned best through reading, while this is still true, I now know that that I also retain the information so much better when I get to physically put it in practice or at least have a contextually understanding of information. Although that is only an example from one of the modules, I found that throughout them all I was understanding the importance of the information in a different way. What was being said about critical thinking and analyzing information, as well patient education and overall test taking strategy was more applicable and useful when it came time to take the tests. While the lessons themselves where helpful, I also enjoyed the taking the tests. These where the first nursing style questions I have looked at since the end of last semester. I found that with the first module I was struggling to answer because I was not using the skills and analyzing the questions in the way I usually do. After the first couple questions I got back into the mind set and really started to take my time and look at what the question was asking. I also found that some of the time I would over think a question and change my answer. This was mostly because I was looking deeper into the question than what it was asking. I always think that the questions are trying to trick me and that they are way more complicated than I originally think so I will change my answer. Making my way through the modules, I found that for the most part, questions were straightforward and that if I just read the words in the question carefully and didn’t assume additional information than I was better off. Overall, I learned from these modules different ways of looking at information and knowing what works best for myself as well as ways to answer a question even if I am not 100% on the information. Going forward with ATI assignments as well as NCLEX I know that I need to take my time and not rush through things and make sure I completely understand what the question is looking for and that answer is not only factually correct but also with what is best for the patient and what their needs may be.
Empathy and compassion are important traits to have not only in nursing, but also in a person’s everyday life. Empathy, by definition is “the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner (empathy, n.d)”, while compassion is “sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it (compassion, n.d)”. My person definition of these words are similar to the dictionary definition. To me empathy is being able to truly feel the pain, excitement, or any emotion of another person without making it be about yourself. Compassion is the desire to lessen ones pain and suffering through actions, of kindness and caring. From these definitions, it is easy to see how empathy and compassion go hand and hand, and often can overlap in life and more importantly, in the clinical setting. Over the past six weeks, I have been able to experience empathy and compassion on the floors of New England Rehibition Hospital in Portland and have witnessed the effects it has on a patient. Along with empathy and compassion, I experienced many instances of caring that reminded me of aspects that Jean Watson touched on in her “Core Concepts of Human Caring”. Through these experiences in clinical, I was able to achieve a practical understanding of the human aspect of nursing that cannot be taught or seen in textbooks.
Jean Watson is an American nurse theorist who is well known for her theory of human caring. Watson developed this theory from her own view of nursing and in an effort to bring meaning to the emerging field of nursing (Wagner, 2010, Watson, n.d). In Watsons theory, she expresses ten caritive factors/processes that are present in nursing. A commonality that all these factors share is that they revolve around the aspects of compassion and empathy. Whether you are feeling the patients emotions or have sympathy for them, Watson incorporates this feeling into her works and implements them into the field of nursing. For this paper I chose to focus in on three factors in particular. The caritive factors I will be talking about are, being authentically present when caring for a patient, developing a helping-trusting and authentic relationship, and lastly being present and supportive of expressed feelings. I chose to focus in on these three factors, not because they are more important than the other seven but rather the fact that they evoked the strongest emotional memories. I also feel that when I think about these factors in particular, they remind me of empathy and compassion and the roles they play in achieving the outcomes of these factors. Watson’s theories captured aspects of the nursing field that at the beginning of the semester I could not quite conceptualize. Now as I read through Watson’s works, I am able to put her factors and concepts into practical nursing applications.
On my first day of clinical I was assigned to a patient who was two weeks post ischemic stroke. This patient was nearing their time of discharge and adamantly just wanted to go home. The only evidence of a stroke that remained was slight right side weakness in their right arm. Being the scared, nervous student I was walking into that room, I could tell that they noticed my hesitancy and were made uneasy. In that moment I knew I had to be honest with the patient and let them know that this was my first day and that I did in fact know what I was doing but was just nervous since it was a new experience. This honesty with the patient seemed to calm them enough to allow me to begin getting them ready for the day. I almost feel like in that moment the patient was being the empathetic and compassionate one in our relationship. From that moment forward I felt that we settled into a good student nurse, patient relationship that was a helping-trusting and authentic relationship. We spent a significant amount of time together getting to know more about each other and talk about our lives. They told me about recently losing their spouse and having their children live out of state. I could sense how lonely and isolated my patient was and knew that all they really needed from me on that day was to be there and present for them. We sat for a while just being together and I could tell that they appreciated having someone be there and support them. That day we built a mutual trust that allowed us to help each other grow. They gave me the confidence I needed in the clinical setting to be empathetic and compassionate with my patients. For them I was able to be there at a time of loneliness and was able to just listen to them as they expressed their feelings without expressing judgment or rushing them. My patient even thanked me when it was time for me to go. They said how much they appreciated the time I took to just be with them and be present in the moment.
After that first clinical experience I was much more confident in my role as a student nurse. I felt like I was actually making a difference to the patients by taking the time to get to know them and I started noticing ways in which others could be more compassionate towards some patients. During my time at clinical I got to assist with two straight catherization’s, and the experiences could not have been more different. On my third week of clinical a nurse offered to let me watch how a straight catheterization was done. This was an exciting experience for me, but I knew that for the patient this was not going to be a pleasant experience. Knowing this, I went into the room with the nurse and introduced myself and asked how they were doing to try and ease their nerves. The nurse I was with did not do any of this. They walked in and just began setting up their sterile field without acknowledging the patient. I was shocked by the nurse’s actions and could tell that because the nurse did not talk to them or inform the patient of what was going to happen, the patient became increasingly uneasy. The patient became extremely agitated as the time for the procedure neared. I felt like I had to step up and try and support and be there for the patient. I started talking to them and asking questions to distract them from what was going on. I showed the patient that I was authentically there and present in the moment. After a little more talking and calming them down the nurse was ready to begin. Again, they did not address the patient and began explaining what they were going to do to me rather than the patient. Although I appreciated the lesson on catheterization, the bigger lesson I learned from this experience was how not to act. I learned from this nurse what it looked like to not be empathetic and compassionate when performing a rather invasive and uncomfortable procedure. The way I was able to perform Watson’s caritive factor of being authentically present with a patient, the nurse could have done while preparing their field. By ignoring the patient and never addressing them, the patient became even more agitated and uncomfortable.
The second catheterization I did while at clinical was drastically better than the previous one. For this situation it was me and a fellow classmate preforming the catheterization with the supervision of our clinical instructor. Before we entered the room, I recounted to my classmate the experience I had the first time and together we agreed that we would make the client feel as supported as we could. In this experience I would say we utilized all three of Watson’s factors that I touched on at the beginning of the paper. We walked in introduced ourselves explained what we were going to do and asked if they had any questions or concerns. The patient was unsettled by the fact that we were students and that my classmate had never performed a catheterization before. We did our best to be supportive of the patients feelings and not undermine their fears and anxiety. Through being present and authentic with the patient, we were able to calm them done and reassured them that we were competent and that our clinical instructor would be in to supervise the procedure. Before we started the procedure, the floor nurse came in and after addressing the patient, they informed us that we needed a coudé tip catheter. My classmate and clinical instructor left to get the new catheter and I was left with the patient. Again, the patient became anxious about the procedure and sought reassurance. In the time I was alone with the patient we built a trusting relationship where they asked me if I was going to be there the whole time. They even held onto my hand during the procedure for comfort. After we finished and got them all cleaned up, the patient thanked us and complemented us on our professionalism. This second experience really solidified the importance of being empathetic and compassionate when preforming nursing duties.
Compassion, empathy, and their impact in Watson’s 10 caritive factors, are elements of being a nurse that should be present at all times when preforming care. As nurses we are often dealing with patients when they are in vulnerable positions. By showing empathy and compassion, we are able to improve a patients overall care and experience while in a time of need. Throughout this paper I only touched on how empathy and compassion can be applied to three of Watson’s 10 caritive factors. That being said when looking through all the factors, it is apparent that the main component of Watson’s theory is being empathetic and compassionate. As a student you are taught how to be empathetic and how to be compassionate but learning about it is not the same as implementing these skills. I have always thought that empathy is something that cannot be taught, and even still I believe this. I do think people can learn ways to improve their natural empathy and enhance their showing of empathy, but they never feel it as deeply as others do. My main take away from this paper and from all my clinical experiences is that at the end of the day we are all people and we all feel and experience things in different ways. As a nurse it is your job to make your patient feel comfortable and important when providing care to them. It might take an extra second to show compassion or empathy, but that second can make a huge difference in a patient care.
Reference
Cara, C. (2003). A Pragmatic View of Jean Watson’s Caring Theory, www.humancaring.org (under “continuing education”)
Compassion. (n.d.) In Merriam-Webster’s collegiate dictionary. Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/compassion
Empathy. (n.d.) In Merriam-Webster’s collegiate dictionary. Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/compassion
Wagner , A. L. (2010). Core Concepts of Jean Watson’s Theory of Human Caring/Caring Science. Retrieved November 30, 2019, from https://elearn.une.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-2031804-dt-content-rid-18921604_1/courses/20250-202002-NSG-351-A/20250-202002-NSG-351-A_ImportedContent_20190808045954/FOR SUE WATSON’S THEORY OF CARING CARITAS READING.pdf.
Watson, J. (2008). Nursing: The Philosophy and Science of Caring (rev. ed.), Boulder: University Press of Colorado.
Watson, J. (n.d.). THEORY OF HUMAN CARING. Retrieved December 1, 2019, from https://elearn.une.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-2031805-dt-content-rid-18921605_1/courses/20250-202002-NSG-351-A/20250-202002-NSG-351-A_ImportedContent_20190808045954/FOR SUE 2019 WATSON’S THEORY OF CARING REQUIRED READING.pdf.
Coming into this school year I knew I would face many new challenges that where both exciting and intimidating. Thus far, this academic year has been like no other schooling I have faced so far, and it has challenged me physically, mentally, and emotionally. One thing that has pushed me to keep going has been the goals I set for myself both in this class and also personally. I honestly feel that if I did not go into this year with goals set both academically and personally, I would not have pushed myself as hard as I have and held myself to the standard I do. Often times as a student I will push my personal needs and well-being to the side and focus on the assignment I need to get done or the test I need to study for. This may have benefited me academically in the short term but as we have learned through this course, and other, if you don’t take care of yourself you can’t fully take care of others. Although I have not fully fulfilled all my goals from the beginning of the year, I would say that I have been more aware of these aspects of selfcare and working towards fulfilling my personal goals. Throughout this paper I will reference “transtheoretical model of behavioral change” in reference to my readiness to act on goals and improve or change my behavior. There are six stages of change that are as follows; precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance, and relapse. Most of my goals are at the contemplation or action stage since going into this assignment I was already aware that I needed to make some changes in my life.
As I stated in the Wellness Self Care Goal Sheet, my first and most important goal was to work on my emotional wellness. When I took the IHWA questionnaire in September, I scored a 5 out of 20 on my emotional wellness section. As of November 3rd, when I took the questionnaire again, my score has drastically improved to now being a 15 out of 20. This surpassed the 10 out of 20 goal I had originally set in my strategies for attaining my goal which is something I am proud of and will keep working at. I talked extensively about how I hold in my feelings and am not able to express my emotions in an appropriate way and that I was going to work on being more open with my friends and family. Of all the goals I set, this is the goal I was most determined to achieve because it is something that I knew would help me grow as a person.
For too long I have held everything in because I didn’t want to hurt or offend anyone, and it has taken a lot of time to realize how much of a toll it takes to always act indifferent. Over the past couple months, I have pushed myself to be more open about when I’m stress, annoyed, anxious, or just need to talk to someone. All though this hasn’t been an easy thing to do, I have noticed that the more I do talk to others the easier it has become. Being more open has also helped me to become closer with some people in my life, especially fellow classmates, because we are all going through the same things and understand what the other is going through. It’s also been a huge personal awakening that expressing your feelings and emotions to others doesn’t make you weak or a burden, it just makes you human. At the beginning of the semester I was definitely at the determination stage of the transtheoretical model but as time has passed and I have had time to work on my emotional wellness I would now say I’m comfortably in the action stage. Although I have seen some improvements, there is still more that I can and will work on when it comes to being more open and willing to share emotion and I think this openness will come with more practice.
The second goal I set for myself was to work on my physical and nutritional wellbeing. Although on the IHWA questionnaire, physical exercise and physical nutritional wellbeing are two separate sections, I really think that these two sections go hand and hand for me, so I grouped them into my own category. I know that for me personally when I am active and go to the gym or at least for a walk during the day I feel better and am more motivated. That being said, I often don’t take the time to take care of myself in that way because I am tired and overwhelmed with the amount of work I need to get done. Also, now that I live off campus and no longer have a meal plan, I am responsible for preparing all my own meals and making sure I go grocery shopping. At the beginning of the semester I made the goals for myself that I would cook myself a healthy dinner and try and work out or at least go for a walk every day. All though this was a goal I really wanted to work on, it is something that I have not made a priority. At the beginning of the semester I was going to the gym or walking on the beach every day and making sure that I bought lots of fruit, vegetables, and other healthy foods for dinner and lunches. As the school year picked up and the workload increased, I started skipping my walks and buy more foods that where convenient or some weeks not even buying any food.
I noticed that as my physical and nutrition wellbeing declined so did my overall well-being. Now at a little over the halfway point in the semester I am starting again to make exercise and eating well a priority. The first time I took the IHWA questionnaire I scored a 10 out of 20 on the physical and nutritional wellbeing portion. This was not a terrible score, but I also knew I needed to improve on it to better myself. Now when I took it again on November 3rd, I scored a 6 out of 20 since the amount of real food I eat, and my mindful eating habits have declined. Most of the time when I’m eating now, it is a microwave meal that I eat in front of the TV while I am doing homework or studying. Based on the transtheoretical model, I would say that at the beginning of the semester I was at the preparation stage before the Goal Assignment and then entered into the action stage where I was really focused on eating right and working out. By about mid-October I would say that I relapsed into my old ways and was back to eating what was convenient and not nutritious or healthy. Now though I am working my way back into the action stage of getting and preparing health food and working out every day. This is something I am really working towards since physical and nutritional wellbeing contributes strongly to overall wellbeing.
Overall making, setting, and achieving my goals is something that I strive to do every day. Although thus far in the school year I have not necessarily achieved all the goals I have set for myself, I have been more aware of my overall health and wellbeing and am working on improving myself. The biggest change I have made and need to continue making is managing my time and not letting myself get overwhelmed with my schoolwork. As my Mom has always said, “school is your job right now,” and although this is true it is also my job to take care of myself and make sure that I am doing well physically, emotionally, and mentally. This class and the lessons we have learned about selfcare have been eye-opening to how much taking care of yourself effects all aspects of your life. As I have been writing this paper and reflecting on the changes I have made and the changes I still need to make, I’m re-inspired and motivated to put in the much-needed effort to achieve my goals and benefit my life for the future. By learning how to take care of myself now, I am creating a foundation of selfcare for the future.
Reference
Integrative Health and Wellness Assessment ™. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.deeprootshealing.org/integrative-health-wellness-assessment/.
Martin, K. (2009). Research Center for Stroke and Heart Disease. Retrieved Sept. 5, 2013 fromhttp://www.hearttruthnewyork.org/content/Prochaska_Transtheoretical_Model.pdf
What is a nurse? Or better yet, what isn’t a nurse? When I was looking for a piece of art that encompassed a nurse, I was having an extremely difficult time capturing all the duties I thought where important. I felt like no image I came across captured what it truly meant to be a nurse. That is when I a stumbled upon this picture and it made me stop. There is something about this picture that completely captures what it means to be a nurse, in my eyes. The compassionate touch of the nurse, the trust the patient has, but most of all the calm caring expression on the nurses face. In that moment she isn’t thinking of the thousands of other things she has to get done, she isn’t trying to rush him, or being evasive. No, her one and only focus and care is giving this patient his medication and making sure that he is getting all she can give him in that moment. That is what I think it means to be a nurse. A person that patients can trust and rely on. Someone that will be there for them and help them when they often need it the most.
