Nursing Is a Challenging Profession,

Nursing is a challenging profession, one that tests the limits of patience and tolerance of pressure. However, all nurses can rely on their inner sources of inspiration: the compassion we feel for patients and our determination to do whatever we can to help those in need. As an aspiring nurse, I realize that examining my personal potential through the five competencies can help me to better understand what a nursing profession will entail.

I will therefore be better prepared to meet all the challenges that arise during the course of the daily job and throughout a lifetime career. For now, I can improve the quality of my preparatory education by analyzing how my current coursework fits in with my career goals. Looking at nursing coursework in light of the competencies will help me determine which courses I might benefit by taking in the future.

Furthermore, a thorough and honest self-appraisal will shed light on my weaknesses, revealing areas that I can focus on for improving my prospects as a successful nurse. While a career in nursing will involve all five of the competencies, my nursing courses have focused most on the second and fifth competencies, which are both areas in which I need to improve the most. Nursing entails all five competencies: resource allocation, information acquisition, interpersonal skills, system operations, and technology know-how.

Resources that a nurse has to properly allocate include mainly time and materials, as hospital administrative staff deals more with finances. Nurses work under tight, rigorous schedules: each day includes paying attention to the needs of many different patients, who receive batteries of tests, meals at certain times, operations, and other medical procedures. Therefore, nurses need to rank tasks in order of their importance, and avoid wasting time. Moreover, nurses have to deal with and economically administer materials such as medication, medical supplies, and toiletries.

We need to make sure the hospital keeps track of inventory properly. Head nurses will also be responsible for human resources, as they will have to asses the knowledge and skill set of nurses in their staff, evaluate their performance, and provide constructive feedback. Regarding the second competency, nurses continually deal with date about patients. Because of the sensitive nature of patient data, nurses must know how to read charts, interpret them, organize the information, and process it properly.

Working in tight quarters with coworkers makes the third competency particularly relevant in the nursing profession. Staff needs to cooperate with doctors and head nurses, who also need to demonstrate clear and balanced leadership skills. Communication is essential to the effective functioning of any hospital. Moreover, because hospitals function as organic systems, nursing need to be keenly aware of how the fourth competency pertains to the profession. A hospital is a system that involves social, organizational, and technological elements. Finally, the fifth competency regarding technology is integral to nursing.

Mechanized and computerized medical equipment, databases of patient information, and electronic devices are all part of a nurse's daily job and therefore we must be able to interact with and troubleshoot technology. The nursing coursework I have taken so far focuses in particular on the second and fifth competencies, regarding information and technology. Courses like anatomy and physiology are fundamental information-gathering classes that provide a firm foundation for aspiring nurses. Thorough knowledge of the human body, its functions, and its diseases, plus knowledge of medicine are imparted through nursing classes.

Furthermore, nursing instructors also demonstrate how technology plays a role in the profession. We use computers to access medical databases, for example. Therefore, the second and fifth competencies are related to one another. In addition to their use as information technology, computers also provide the backbone of almost all electronic medical equipment. Nursing courses also show how sophisticated machines such as CAT scans are implemented in hospitals. I am particularly weak in particularly those competency areas that the nursing courses cover: information and technology.

Regarding resource allocation, interpersonal skills, and systems understanding, I am innately strong. However, I still require more actual knowledge and information about the human body and about the nursing profession in general. I am still studying and acquiring the information needed to become a successful nurse. For example, I know very little about treating and dealing with infectious diseases. Next year hopefully I will be able to take courses in this particular field and apply that knowledge to my future career.

Similarly, I am also weak regarding the functions and implementation of medical technologies. Not only do I need to learn more about nursing software systems such as patient databases, but I also.