The Stages of My Career Development in Nursing
Benner’s Stages
There is only so much an individual can learn from a textbook or classroom setting when it comes to nursing. Although clinical practicums are mandatory with any nursing program one can only retain so much in such a short timeframe. Student nurses mostly focus on completing their care plans and any other mandatory assignment related to their clinical experience. With that being said new graduates become novice nurses on the level of clinical practice. Patricia Benner discussed the education and experience levels of nurses by utilizing five significant stages. These stages include novice, advance beginner, competent, proficient, and expert. The ultimate goal for all nurses should
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I joined the unit council and I’ve participated in the clinical ladder program at my facility. I believe all of these accomplishments will aid in progressing to the next level. I strive to have several experiences under my belt and I would like to be viewed as a hot commodity within the nursing field so in addition to hospital setting nursing I work part-time at a prison and a nursing home. The extra money helps pay for school and I plan to continue my education ever further. In addition to basic life support I am also certified in advance cardiovascular life support. I believe that I have some qualities of a proficient level nurse already. When caring for my patients I always go with my instinct. There have been numerous times that I’ve assessed patients and I couldn’t put my finger on what was wrong but I utilized my resources for a second opinion. I would have my charge nurse or department based educator step in to assess and give me their opinion as well. These patients were slowly deteriorating and I was able to get them the adequate help they
The role of Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRN) in health care has been identified as a critical role in the goal to provide high-quality health care. APRNs have a bigger role to play in the health care system and it is important that students are provided with relevant and valuable knowledge as well as experience that improve their abilities. Achieving course objectives are critical for APRNs with the goal of contributing positively to the health care system. As a future APRN, I place high priority on life-long learning and the development of other people’s skill sets. All duties associated with health care require a dedication to excellence and selflessness. These are two components of learning that will improve the capabilities of
The skills acquisition concept poses a backwards movement in progress. The competent nurse in this case steps backward down the ladder to the novice level as an NP. Moreover, learning new skills, knowledge, and methods of treatment may technically be a step forward in a person’s career, but it is a step backwards in confidence and experience. The transition theory suggests transition as a never-ending process. The success of this course depends on a person’s support system and methods for coping. The transition theory has three stages: moving in, moving through and moving out. The moving in stage would be entering graduate education. Moving through is the process of completing classes and clinical time. The final stage, moving out, is beginning the first position as an NP. Successfully transitioning through these stages is heavily reliant on support, self-awareness and coping mechanisms. For instance, failure to begin the transition phase in graduate school is a prediction of the inability to properly shift into the role of NP (Poronsky,
The College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO) is the governing body of all registered nurses in Ontario and is regulated. The CNO provides expectations and guidelines to follow, which need to be met by each Registered Practical Nurse (RPN) individually. As a nursing student, I am taught about the CNO and the importance of referring back to the guidelines while caring for patients. While gaining experiencing in the nursing field through my clinical settings, I have realized as a nursing student there are areas I need further development in. In this paper, I will address two of my learning needs and my goal for each. I will also discuss the plan I created in order to successfully meet my learning needs prior to becoming an RPN, and
As a medical / surgical RN, I provided care for the elderly, the infirm, the mentally challenged, the young, and the psychologically disturbed. The wide variety of patients exposed me to the effects of life style choices, health care choices, and the resulting impacts to the patient as well as to the family of the patient. This experience has fully matured my view of the awesome responsibility that we, as health care professionals, have been charged with, and it has furthered my desire to obtain the skills necessary to provide more advanced care for my patients. In addition to exposure, maturity and experience, my career as a medical / surgical RN has also sharpened my critical thinking abilities and provided insight on observing signs and symptoms that a patient may be unware of. Furthermore, as a charge nurse I learned the importance of collaborating with other health care professionals in order to provide the highest level of care available. In summary, my career as an RN has provided valuable experience, maturity, exposure to impact and outcome, enhanced my critical thinking abilities, and improved my collaboration
..., R.M. & Jones, J.R. (2010). From practice to education: Perspectives from three nurse leaders. Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 41(2), 83-87. doi: 10.3928/00220124-20100126-0
It is important that students have the ability of being competent in a clinical setting. To be deemed competent in skills according to nursing regulations and requirements. This is a challenging factor for many students, as they enter transition period. This is due to students feel they do not have the desired clinical competency that promotes the skills and authorities of a registered nurse (Harsin, Soroor & Soodabeh, 2012). Clinical research studies have found that students do have the required expected levels of knowledge, attitude and behaviour’s. However, the range of practical skills aren’t sufficient for the range of practice settings (Evans, 2008). This research has also found that other evidenced based studies found that competency in nursing skills is still lacking (Evans, 2008). These skills are lacked by students and newly graduated nursing how are in the first or second year of
Higher education is a highly encouraged aspect in today’s society. The higher degree a person has, the more knowledgeable they are said to be. The education and degree that a registered nurse acquires affects not only the nurse, but their patients and their fellow coworkers as well. It is crucial to consider how different education levels of registered nurses will impact the patients, the nurse, the medical field, and the view on nurses as a whole. A nurse with a BSN rather than an ADN could perhaps provide more knowledgeable care that is consistent with the advances of today’s society. With our society and technologies always advancing and changing, it is safe to assume that a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree should be the required level of education for a registered nurse.
Pettigrew, A., Dienger, M., & King, M. (2011). Nursing students today: Who are they and what are their learning preferences? Journal of Professional Nursing, 27(4), 227-236. doi:10.1016/j.profnurs.2011.03.007.
There has been great debate in the nursing community for years regarding what should be the educational requirements for a practicing nurse. There are currently many options for men and women to enter the field through LPN, ADN, and BSN programs. More recently, programs have been popping up allowing accelerated BSN obtainment through second degree programs. The debate stems from the conflicting ideas of whether nursing as a whole is a trade, requiring an associate’s degree, or should be considered a profession, often requiring a Baccalaureate degree. In this paper this author will use past nursing history, current medical demands and advancements, and clinical patient outcomes to argue that the minimum education for a nurse should be a Baccalaureate degree.
Patricia Benner’s clinical practice was based on a wide array of specialties which included medical-surgical, critical care and home health care nursing. She started out her career working as a registered nurse and moved on to focus much of her post graduate work on research. Benner applied the Dreyfus Model of Skill and Acquisition as a framework to her Novice to Expert approach to patient care. Patricia Benner has been greatly influenced by Virginia Henderson, recognizing that Virginia’s theory focused on the “how” of nursing while her own theory concentrated on how nurses learn to be nurses and how they progress in their practice, using clinical development in addition to clinical experience. Her framework suggests that nursing use an always moving forward practice to deliver patient care and that knowledge accrues overtime and through different experiences. She believes that there is a process that happens of “knowing that” while at the same time “knowing how” which enables nurses to transition from the novice to expert stage (Alligood & Tomey, 2010, p. 140)
SMITHS, S, DUELL, D and MARTIN, B (2008) Clinical Nursing Skills basic to advanced skills. New Jersey: Person Education Inc.
Because I have always wanted to pursue a career as a nurse practitioner, I chose Walden to provide the opportunity for this to occur. I want to continue to work with in the community healthcare field when I become a nurse practitioner. I have a strong work ethic, I work well with teams, and I want to be part of an institution that develops strong students, who will make the world a better place. I have spent numerous hours mentoring my colleagues in the areas
Effective nursing care plays a very important role in health care as it safeguards the patients and helps them recover as soon as possible. There are many processes that contribute to effective nursing care, nursing process is one of them. Nursing process consists of 5 main phases; Assessment phase, Diagnosing phase, Planning phase, Implementing phase and Evaluation phase. All the phases work hand in hand together and one links to another with every phase having its important role. This process helps to improve the effectiveness of the care as it is directed to every patient individually.
In this paper, I will explore and explain the nursing skill stage I am currently in. I will also describe steps necessary to progress from, or maintain this stage, and the resources I will need to do this. I have been a Professional Nurse for twelve years. For ten of those years I have worked in Cardiac Intensive Care (CCU) where I currently work, and for two years in Outpatient Hemodialysis (HD). Using Benner’s model, I would consider myself at the Expert level.
Benner’s theory proposes that the road from novice to expert nurse encompasses five stages yet, these stages are ill defined in the literature. In addition, the criteria used for assigning nurses to stages (number of years of experience and supervisors’ judgements) are not reliable and do not always correlate with expertise. Nurses can be categorized as experts in adult Medical-Surgical nursing but a novice in neonatal intensive care