Decision‐Making in Nursing Practice Assignment Sample

• Subject Name : Nursing

Nursing Practice - Question 1

The transition from fresh graduate to a registered nurse is full of emotions that entail not only happiness, but also fear, uncertainty, and fear. It is the time when the registered nurse is questioned based on their ability, choice, and steps taken for the care of the patient. One common thing is the feeling of insecurity and unsure about the ability to be a registered nurse and handle all the responsibilities of the patient. During the transition period, many issues can be faced by a fresh graduate nurse, but amongst them caring for patients with multi-comorbidities is the common one (Hopia & Heikkilä, 2020). Moreover, others have limited proficiency in technical skills, collaboration and working with teams, and decision-making. Though, fresh nursing graduates need to know the importance of transition and be a part of it. The challenges faced by the fresh graduate nurse can be facilitated by following strategies such as preceptor programs and mentoring, a supportive environment, planning, and self-care.

Preceptor programs and mentoring is an effective tool that offers support to new nursing professionals. Preceptor programs ensure positive outcomes to a registered nurse and help the nursing professionals to integrate theory into practice (Nibbelink & Brewer, 2018). This programming allows a fresh graduate nurse to work with an experienced one to develop competence, confidence, and gain autonomy in inpatient care. This allows both the personal and professional growth of a professional. The second strategy is a supportive environment, this is the key factor for success. Opportunities are provided to fresh graduate nursing professionals to gain patient management skills and development of clinical skills, thus encouraging confidence in their ability. A supportive environment allows the nursing professional to feel comfortable in raising concerns and issues during the transition period (Scala & Day 2016). However, they are essential for a fresh graduate nurse in reducing anxiety and stress.

Nursing Practice - Question 2

There is a great difference between the experiences of transition from a nursing student to an experienced nurse. The time of early six months is the time that is critical for professionals in adjustments. Moreover, they feel excited and elated with their experience as manifestations into feelings of disillusion, bewilderment, inadequacy, fear, and doubt. In the nursing profession, this phenomenon is called as reality shock because they come across with responsibilities and expectations that give rise to feelings of incompetence, vulnerability, inadequacy, and insecurity (Redman, Pressler & Furspan et al., 2015). The fresh nursing graduate also faces a mismatch between the roles and responsibilities that are held by a nursing student and nursing graduate. They keep on struggling with the various aspects of a new and higher level of responsibilities such as patient acuity, decision making, higher patient load, and managerial skills.

They are also compounded with unrealistic expectations from supervisors and colleagues who have great demand of hit the ground running, delivery of work performance, and transition of roles from new to experienced nurses. Moreover, fresh graduate nurses in their experience face a clash between the reality of professional nursing practice and the idealistic view of nursing. This practice of transition is perceived as overwhelming and conflicting threatening. These feelings of transition give rise to negative experiences and potential manifestations of professional dissatisfaction and career disillusionment (Paplham & Austin-Ketch 2015). In the entry-level, fresh graduate nurses face challenges in professional relationships and identity. Transition thus begins and new registered nurse moves into experienced one with moving into a comfort zone. The experienced nurse also sometimes comes across with overwhelming experience of responsibilities and accountabilities. This self-doubt gets increased pressure from time to time and despite the theoretical knowledge on experience, nursing professionals face apprehension over their ability to apply that theory into practice (Brown, 2015).

Nursing Practice - Question 3

Social media is used in transforming future practice as a professional practitioner by the availability of tools present in the healthcare field and their use. Healthcare professionals use social networking platforms, wikis, microblogs, virtual reality, media-sharing sites, gaming environments, and blogs. These tools help professionals in improving and enhancing professional education and networking, patient education, organizational promotion, public health programs, and patient care. However, social media also has risks to patients and healthcare professionals with the distribution of information with poor quality, breach of patient privacy, damage to a professional image, legal issues, licensing, and personal-professional boundaries (Bakon, Wirihana & Christensen et al., 2017). Social media tools are used to share information on healthcare policies and practices to engage the public, educate them, and interact with colleagues, students, caregivers, and patients for the promotion of health.

Social media is used by healthcare professionals to potentially motivate patients, increase awareness on discoveries and news, providing health information to the community, and developing professional networks (Wright, Golder & Lewis-Light, 2015). The article states that professionals usually join online communities so that they can get enough stuff related to news articles, research medical developments, listening to experts, and developing networks. Platforms on social media allow sharing cases and ideas, making referrals, discussion with practice management, marketing their practices, dissemination of research, and engagement in health advocacy. Moreover, healthcare professionals are directly allowed to communicate with patients through these social media platforms. Social networking has evolved medical professionals to communities among private and protected from non-members of health professions ((Redman et al., 2015).

References for Nursing Practice

Bakon, S., Wirihana, L., Christensen, M., & Croft, J. (2017). Nursing handovers: An integrative review of the different models and processes available. International Journal of Nursing Practice, 23(2), e12520. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijn.12520

Brown, A. M. (2015). Simulation in undergraduate mental health nursing education: A literature review. Clinical Simulation in Nursing, 11(10), 445-449. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecns.2015.08.003

Hopia, H., & Heikkilä, J. (2020). Nursing research priorities based on the CINAHL database: A scoping review. Nursing Open, 7(2), 483-494. https://doi.org/10.1002/nop2.428

Nibbelink, C. W., & Brewer, B. B. (2018). Decision‐making in nursing practice: An integrative literature review. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 27(5-6), 917-928. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.14151

Paplham, P., & Austin-Ketch, T. (2015). Doctor of nursing practice education: Impact on advanced nursing practice. In seminars in oncology nursing (Vol. 31, No. 4, pp. 273-281). WB Saunders. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soncn.2015.08.003

Redman, R. W., Pressler, S. J., Furspan, P., & Potempa, K. (2015). Nurses in the United States with a practice doctorate: Implications for leading in the current context of health care. Nursing Outlook, 63(2), 124-129. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.outlook.2014.08.003

Scala, E., Price, C., & Day, J. (2016). An integrative review of engaging clinical nurses in nursing research. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 48(4), 423-430. https://doi.org/10.1111/jnu.12223

Wright, K., Golder, S., & Lewis-Light, K. (2015). What value is the CINAHL database when searching for systematic reviews of qualitative studies?. Systematic Reviews, 4(1), 1-8. https://systematicreviewsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13643-015-0069-4

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