Fiction and story telling is an integral part of life. It is all around us and we cannot escape it. Storytelling is such a powerful tool in a person’s life and nurses must be able to not only tell stories but also learn how to listen to a patient’s story, interpret the stories, and empathize with the patient. Narrative competence is a valuable skill to have as a nurse. Narrative competence is the “ability to acknowledge, absorb, interpret, and act on the stories and plights of others” (Charon, 2001). This is why having narratives from a patient’s perspective that a nurse can reference to is vital. By reading narrative nurses then have a background or an idea of what a patient may be going through and why he or she is acting in a certain way. …show more content…
Everything revolves around the patient: the patient’s safety, the patient’s health, the patient’s comfort, and the patient’s happiness. Therefore, having a narrative solely from a patient’s perspective of how he is dealing with life before, during, and after treatment is important. “Flowers for Algernon” is a great narrative for nurses to look back on for an insight to what a patient may be feeling and also as a reminder to not only focus on how the treatment is affecting the patient physically, but also to notice how the treatment is affecting a person …show more content…
“Wisteria” by Leslie Nyman and “Bev Brown” by Sybil Smith reflect this shift in perspective in my anthology. Both nurses in these narratives show how reflecting on your day at work helps connect you to your patients. Reflecting on a day at work helps nurses to work through the emotions experienced during their shift. Janie in “Wisteria” does just this. She has never had one of her patient’s die until that night. She reflects on speaking to Betty about Charles, her husband who has passed away, and we see how Betty opens up to Janie and how Janie is being an empathetic listener. Reflecting also allows nurses to see how much they have impacted their patients. The nurse in “Bev Brown” can look back to see how by not giving up on Bev Brown and asking her what is going on in her life she has formed a relationship with Bev Brown that has led to Bev Brown’s compliance to medical treatment. This relationship has also given Bev Brown hope and a friend. By reading narratives such as these nurses can understand how something as simple as listening to patients and asking them questions about their lives can drastically change the course of their lives.
Finally, I conclude my anthology with a novel, “Redeeming Love” by Francine Rivers. This novel
Nursing is definitely a great discourse community. But you’re probably wondering, what is a discourse community? Well John Swales, who is a professor of linguistics and co-director of the Michigan corpus of Academic Spoken English at the University of Michigan, wrote a book called “Genre Analysis” that explained what discourse community is and the characteristics for identifying what takes part as a discourse community. Swales defines discourse community as centrifugal; In other words, it tends to separate people into occupational or specialty-interest groups (Swales, John. “Genre Analysis” Writing about Writing. Wardle, et al. 220). So basically he’s saying that it is a group of people who communicate about similar interests that they have in common with each other. With that said, Nursing does count as a discourse community because it’s a field of people who share similar interests, value, and goals in their lives. Discourse communities takes place all around the world and plays an important role in communication. There is no way others can understand others without the use
at the orphanage, I was able to help build a sidewalk and a garage for
It will seek to demonstrate the appropriateness in supporting the patient and their family, whilst reflecting upon personal experience, and how literature may influence the healing effectiveness. The factors that enhance and inhibit the learning environment will be explored and suggested techniques to improve clinical learning will also be discussed. Finally the nurse-patient learning relationship will be explored along with the application of teaching and learning strategies will be examined.
The contributions that nurses make through the lives of communities, families, and individuals with their positivity is unlike any other health professions. There is more to being a nurse than what the job description entails. They are the caregivers and educators of patients and communities. Nurses must treat and show patients how to care for themselves after their hospital visit. As an educator, they must display positivity and inspire others to be healthy. In this essay, I will cover the nurse’s education, job description, and a description of a day in the life of a nurse.
I started my Nursing career in India and then I came to the United States and became an RN. I entered Nursing with the thinking that Nursing is a profession that will always allow me to have a job and all my patients will get better. However, from my experiences I understood that Nursing is more than just giving medications, and it requires clinical competence, cultural sensitivity, ethics, caring for others, and life-long learning about others and the evolving field of medicine. Florence Nightingale once said:
Nurses are an equally important part of each client’s life. Nurses provide stable care to each client, answers their questions, gives medications and treatments, and assists with medical procedures. They also have the responsibility to explain to clients and family members what they should and should not do as they go through treatment and recovery. Nurses must quickly respond to patients needs. Every individual nurse has his or her own unique way of caring. There are so many ways to show caring that the possibilities are never ending. Nurse’s support, comfort, and help allow the patients to recover to the best of their ability. Their experiences in dealing with different patients that have unique situations on a daily basis helps the nurses become better caregivers. Therefore, every nurse is capable of demonstrating care in their respective environments.
The majority of our society holds the notion that nurses are no more than trained professionals, working for a doctor, who simply provide medical care for the sick and informed. However, what nursing means to me goes deeper than that belief. Nursing is a profession in which individuals are responsible for not only the care of the sick and infirmed but are also responsible for being a support system and an educator, as well as an advocate for the promotion of optimal care. In today’s society, nurses are an important part of any medical facility’s investment. This paper will address the many different aspects of nursing in which nurse’s act as not only caregivers but also act as, counselors and educators.
Give one personal, one academic, and a nursing/clinical well-chosen example from real life experiences or actual instances that support your understanding of the reading.
Smith, M. C., Turkel, M. C., & Wolfe, Z. R. (2013). Caring in nursing classics. New York: Springer Publishing Company, LLC.
A study conducted by academics found that undergraduate nurses feel reflection is the key to changing and improving their practice. Bulman, Lathlean, & Gobbi, 2011. Reflection assists nurses to enhance their nursing abilities by encouraging them to reflect on negative experiences, in order to overcome similar experiences in the future. This essay will aim to demonstrate the importance of reflection within nursing, providing me with a platform to reflect on my decision to become a nurse. I will begin by reflecting upon the factors that influenced me to choose nursing, followed by an explanation of the benefits that reflection has on nursing.
The ways in which medical students are taught and required to practice medicine prevent them from practicing narrative medicine. Rather, if medical students were given courses on how to demonstrate active listening, asking curious and pertinent questions, and how to build rapport, medical professionals would be better suited to practice narrative
We often replay situations in our minds, thinking back on what occurred, reviewing interpersonal aspects of events, and maybe even second guessing our own actions during an event. This is when nurses learn most, as they attempt to make decision and reflect upon their actions (3). Self-reflections in nursing is something that a professional nurse considers throughout his or her entire career (7). By writing reflections the nurse can distance herself from the experience, enabling more objective writing in the reflection
Introduction Narrative discourse, or the ability to recall and tell an orderly and continuous account of an event or a series of events, is a vital aspect of social communication. Narrative discourse includes the ability to express imaginary stories, recount personal events, and describe instructions to execute a task. During the aging process, individuals often experience changes in their language abilities and executive functioning, or the control and regulation of cognitive actions and planning (Bakos et al., 2008). Despite these changes, most aspects of narrative discourse are well preserved during normal aging (Cooper, 1990; Estes, 2012; Ulatowska, Chapman, Highley, & Prince, 1998). More specifically, elderly individuals produced narratives
Teaching Presentation Narrative Summary Giving a presentation is challenging, but is an important aspect of my education. Our presentation was titled Keeping Nursing in the Nursing Profession: Work-Life Balance and Incivility. The purpose of this presentation was to discuss work-life balance in nursing, discuss strategies that could be incorporated in our profession to provide balance, and to discuss incivility in nursing, including behaviors relative to the topic and preventative measure to foster a safe workplace.
Some of the most gratifying things about being a nurse is the distinctive role we have with those we care for. Our role encourages openness and transparency for clients and their families to reveal things to us they may not be willing to say under most circumstances. Furthermore, nursing is a life path that comes with incalculable responsibilities to be both a compassionate health care provider and a conscientious advocate. This semester I had the opportunity to experience nursing from the perspective of a Community Health Nurse in Montclair, California. It has given me a chance to practice these responsibilities in different ways. It has also given me a new perspective on nursing.