Reflection
When I see myself, I admire the focused, self-motivated individual who stares back at me. These traits played a considerable role in my application to the nursing program. I was determined to become a better version of myself, a professional nurse trained to offer quality care to her patients, so I applied for nursing school.
It all began with my admiration of the nurses I saw around me. I have two aunties and a cousin who are nurses. They are intelligent individuals who are proud of their profession. I recall asking a question relating to healthcare, and my aunt would carefully explain the answer. Her response sparked my interest, and I am glad to be a nursing student today.
As a nursing student, there are three things I look forward to developing in nursing school: scholarship, leadership and courage. These things stand out to me as I noticed the nurses I encountered. I spoke about my aunt, who always had an answer or explanation for every health-related question I asked her during family gatherings. It shows the place of scholarship in nursing and the need to be knowledgeable and ready to educate people when they ask questions.
In her article, Ravindran (2023) writes about four aspects of nursing scholarship: “discovery, integration, application and teaching.” Her point of view is that a scholar discovers new knowledge through research, understands and breaks down the knowledge, applies it to practice and shares the knowledge with others via teaching. I plan to gradually develop my scholarship by integrating what I learned this semester into my practice and career.
Two nursing courses I have taken so far in this program have stood out for me: “The Individual as a Nurse” and “Nursing as a Profession.” In the former, I have learnt to see myself as an individual going into the nursing profession. I have learned stress adaptation techniques such as mindfulness exercises and the need to prioritize rest and sleep. One activity I enjoyed in that course was building my virtual hope kit, a collection of activities I can do to relax and de-stress when school, work, or life feels overwhelming.
According to Uysal & Çalışkan (2022), using mindfulness exercises can help nursing students reduce the stress levels they may experience during their first clinical experience. For this reason, I aim to regularly use my virtual hope kit as my positive coping mechanism against any stressful situation that I may encounter.
In the second course, Nursing as a profession, I have learnt the history of the nursing profession in Canada, the principles that guide the nursing practice, and the standards a nurse should follow to be professional and competent. One big takeaway from this course is the need for continuing education. To me, it means I should stay current with developments in the nursing profession. For example, learning about robots used in hospitals or working with new software for nurse charting to ensure better patient care.
In their paper, Tsirigoti et al. (2024) examined why nurses engage in continuing education. Nurses wanting to know more and learn efficient ways to providing better patient care ranked top of the list.
As I go into the coming semester, I look forward to implementing what I have learnt in my courses and my smart goals. I also look forward to an exciting new experience full of learning new things that will enable me to become a professional nurse!
References
Ravindran, V. (2023). Scholarship in nursing. Indian Journal of Continuing Nursing Education, 24(1), 1–2. https://doi.org/10.4103/ijcn.ijcn_80_23
Tsirigoti, A., León-Mantero, C., & Jiménez-Fanjul, N. (2024). Motivation for continuing education in nursing. Educación Médica, 25(2), 100877-. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edumed.2023.100877
Uysal, N., & Çalışkan, B. B. (2022). The effects of mindfulness‐based stress reduction on mindfulness and stress levels of nursing students during first clinical experience. Perspectives in Psychiatric Care, 58(4), 2639–2645. https://doi.org/10.1111/ppc.13104
