Practicing Nursing in Modernity

Nursing Concerns in Practice Synthesize knowledge from the liberal arts and sciences and nursing science to understand global perspectives, stimulate critical thinking, and use current technologies There are multiple ways that I was able to fulfill this particular course objective. Some of the more cutting edge developments in information technology are outside of the realm of nursing science, and are generally applied to liberal arts and sciences.

However, while networking with colleagues at the clinic I was able to train and practice at, I was able to implement some of those IT developments to help further my education and inform my practice. In order to help learn about different social, cultural, and economic factors that can inform the treatment of patients, I was able to read about certain factors that impacted my patients from lower socio-economic spheres of life.

Specifically, I was able to understand how their limited budgets impacted their dietary choices, as well as how their neighborhoods affected the sort of dietary resources they had at their disposal. I also learned about various cloud-based applications for analytics that can impact nursing and the medical field in general. Many of these involve the deployment of cognitive computing, predictive analytics and machine learning, and can be readily utilized by research institutions and even in traditional care facilities.

The administrators of my care facility had a demonstration of a cognitive computing application that they can use to compare national rates of incidences for certain conditions to local ones for our clinic. Thus, I am familiar with this technology and am in a situation in which I am impacted by its ramifications. Harper, J. (2014).

"The numerous applications of Watson Analytics." www.dataversity.net Retrieved from http://www.dataversity.net/numerous-applications-watson-analytics/ 2 Make sound decisions in the use of patient information and healthcare technology to design, coordinate, manage, and evaluate nursing care for individuals, families and populations I was able to fulfill this course objective by incorporating data from the usage of wearables with my treatment of patients. Wearable devices are getting used more and more frequently throughout numerous spheres of the health care industry (Ramsey, 2013).

I was able to incorporate data from this technology when dealing with a patient who had issues of obesity. She had an odometer on her smart watch that also counted her steps. While I was treating her, I would set limits for the distance and the amount of steps I wanted her to take. I was able to access the data from this device and measure how effective those limits were, and increase them accordingly. Ramsey, R. (2013). The impact of wearable technology in healthcare.

www.wearabletechworld.com Retrieved from http://www.wearabletechworld.com/topics/wearable-tech/articles/353619-impact-wearable-technology-healthcare.htm 3 Demonstrate clinical excellence to provide caring, compassionate, and culturally appropriate patient centered care to people in a variety of settings One of the foremost challenges that I was able to overcome that specifically applied to this course objective was to evince care and concern for patients of various races, nationalities, and ethnicities.

Quite frequently, in the setting in which I administered care, I was tasked with working with patients who did not speak English as a native language. Some of these patients had a better mastery of the language than others, but there were numerous occasions in which I would attempt to communicate with patients who were fluent in some dialect of Chinese, Cambodian, Spanish, and French (Creole) and it was readily apparent that they did not understand me. I addressed this recurring problem in two ways.

I learned to exaggerate my body language so that I could immediately overcome any sort of suspicion regarding my intentions and activities. I made sure that my tone of voice was always enthusiastic and nice, so that even if these patients could not understand me they would not perceive me or my intentions as any sort of threat.

I always began and ended my care with a broad smile to transmit positive energy in my body language, and more or less spoke with the sort of exaggerated tones that one uses when rewarding a pet. Furthermore, another tactic I deployed to ensure the fact that I cared is that I would determine a way to communicate -- no matter how rudimentarily -- with the patient in his or her native voice.

I did this to emphasize the fact that I cared about my patients -- which is a critical facet of nursing (Lachman, 2012, p. 112). I would talk to visiting family members and research the various languages online, and even make notes (after the family members had left) how to say things such as hello, goodbye, and how are you. Lachman, V.D. (2012). Applying the ethics of care to your nursing practice.

www.nursingworld.org Retrieved from http://www.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/EthicsStandards/Resources/Applying-the-Ethics-of-Care-to-Your-Nursing-Practice.pdf 4 Communicate, collaborate, and negotiate effectively to improve patient healthcare outcomes The main way I was able to achieve this outcome was by working with other staff members and with the close family and friends of the various patients I interacted with in the clinical required for receiving this degree. Communication was vital to this part of my experience; it is vital to nursing in general (Choi et al., 2015, p. 90).

In particular, there were a few times that I had to consult with other nurses when dealing with particularly obstinate patients. In all honesty, most of these patients had a general aversion to medical facilities and an innate distrust of genuine. I was able to get a few pointers about how to work with such stubborn patients, and was even able to have help with one man who simply refused to take his medicine in my presence.

By discussing some of the more peculiar or unusual behavior of my clients with other staff in a confidential manner, I was able to utilize their body of knowledge and add it to mine. Many of the other nurses in the clinic in which I was employed had a substantial more amount of experience than I did. I did not tap into this experience for the basic procedures of nursing that I have learned about in school.

However, I did utilize the aforementioned body of knowledge from their experience in order to maneuver through different situations that one encounters related to certain patient types and scenarios that are not roundly discussed in formal nursing education. Similarly, I would consult with family members and friends of patients to understand how best to interact with those patients. Choi, Y., Song, E., Oh, E. (2015). Effects of teaching communication skills using a video clip on a smart phone on communication competence and emotional intelligence in nursing students. Archives of Psychiatric Nursing.

29(2), 90-95. 5 Exhibit professional values and behaviors as outlined by a professional code of ethics, professional standards, and legal statutes Through the different assignments I conducted while completing this course, I was able to come across more than one professional code of ethics and professional standards for the assortments of type of nursing opportunites that one can have with a BSN. Quite simply, my exposure to that information gave me a suitable background to achieve this particular course objective.

I was able to exhibit such values and behaviors in a couple of different ways. Firstly, I was able to interact with the patients that I saw in a manner that was congruent with the code of ethics outlined by the American Nursing Association. I ensured that I was there for the patients to confide in, and that I kept their informational confidential and only discussed it with relevant staff and family members.

Additionally, I made sure that I maintained an aura of professionalism in all of my interactions with others while working with patients and assisting others in medical facilities. I remained punctual and courteous in my communications with others while deferring to the chain of commands inherent with nursing and medical facilities as well. Additionally, I used these professional standards and values as the basis for my interactions with others throughout this course.

I personified the values of honesty and integrity that are critical to the profession of nursing (ANA, 2011) by dealing with my superiors and peers in a professional way. American Nursing Association. (2011). Code of ethics. www.nursingworld.org Retrieved from http://www.nursingworld.org/Mobile/Code-of-Ethics 6 Promote healthy lifestyles through health promotion, risk reduction, and disease prevention education for individuals and populations The primary way that I was able to fulfill this course objective was via discussing the virtues of proper nutrition with many of the patients that I treated.

I would be sure to do so in a way that was not condescending so that my information was received as helpful advice from a health care practitioner that my patients could trust. In this respect I functioned somewhat as a nutrition counselor (Henning, 2009, p. 301). I would emphasize that except for emergencies, many maladies that are a normal part of life (such as seasonal colds and flus) are preventable.

I would explicate the fact that in many ways, the food we eat is a natural form of medicine to keep the body from getting sick. Specifically, I would denote the curative properties of herbs such as garlic and the cleansing properties of vegetables high in fiber such as broccoli. I would also explain that there are numerous foods that one should eat in moderation avoid having long-term problems such as obesity, blood pressure and heart issues.

These include fried and fatty foods, as well as virtually all forms of fast foods. As basic as some of this advice seems, most patients were not familiar with this advice. I would always utilize the metaphor of taking care of one's body as a metaphor for taking care of one's car, wherein individuals are responsible for scrutinizing and only utilizing the best fuel and gas treatments for a car to the sort of foods one would want to ingest. Henning, M. (2009). Nursing's role in nutrition. Computers, Informatics, Nursing. 27(5), 301-306.

7 Incorporate evidence-based knowledge and theory into nursing practice The way that I have managed to incorporate evidence-based knowledge and theory into my nursing practice is by keeping abreast of recent developments in my area of specialization in the field of nursing. As previously indicated, I have treated a number of victims of domestic violence. There is a psychological component to this sort of treatment, as this type of abuse leaves emotional scars. However, I was able to incorporate some evidence-based knowledge about getting victims to open up about their abuse.

Specifically, I was able to learn that it is oftentimes prudent to have a period of respectful silence (regarding the cause of domestic violence) between the victim and nurses (Bradbury-Jones, 2015, p. 40) in order to help the victims to gain benefits later on from discussing this part of their treatment with nurses. I incorporated this evidence-based knowledge into my treatment of domestic violence victims. Bradbury-Jones, C. (2015). Talking about domestic abuse: crucial conversations for health visitors. Community Practitioner. 88(12), 40-43.

8 Demonstrate leadership and collaboration within interdisciplinary healthcare partners and professional, political, and/or regulatory organizations to support change in healthcare I was able to achieve this course objective through my interest in the various scholarly publications to which this class has exposed me. I saw a call to contribute to research in one of these publications pertaining to workers who treat victims of domestic violence.

I have actually managed the care of quite a few such victims, and I believe that this issue would be an important one for my clinic to contribute to efforts of research. I adopted this stance because it is not infrequent that myself and other nurses treat victims of domestic violence. In fact, "violence against women .. is considered a public health problem" (da Rocha et al., 2015, p. 260) that extends well beyond my clinic. Therefore, I notified my supervisor of the research survey instrument that the researchers required, which was quantitative.

We were able to get permission at the administrative level of the clinic and I played an instrumental role in ensuring that myself, and other nurses who treated victims of domestic violence, were able to take the survey. One of the things that moved me to want to participate in this research effort is that the researchers explained that they were attempting to gather data to eventually help make the laws for domestic violence more stringent. Due to the higher number of victims that we.