Memo
To: Bill Templeman
From: Uvbi Osatohangbon
Date: January 30, 2023
Re: Exploring the Discourse Community of Practical Nursing
Introduction
I am drafting this report to inform newcomers about practical nursing and to introduce them to the discourse community.
I will be talking about some of the basic duties that follow when becoming a part of this community. In addition to that I will go over needed education, training, and certification. As well as specific lexis, methods of intercommunication, and common public goals. I will then conclude with significant characteristics of the practical nursing community and my recommendations to a newcomer.
Background
As a Practical Nurse there are many places you can choose to work in like hospitals, health clinics, extended care facilities, or private homes. A Practical Nurse is often found supporting other healthcare workers or working under other medical professionals’ direction. Their duties can include primary patient care such as changing dressings, monitoring patient treatment progress, monitoring patients’ well-being, such as charting vital signs, preparing patients for surgery, assessing clients, working in health promotion or illness prevention, planning, implementing and evaluating care for clients, keeping detailed records of patient’s health, collecting samples for tests, Communicating treatment and health information, providing preoperative and postoperative patient care that can include comfort and personal care, administering prescribed medications to patients, providing patient education on health management or maintenance, cleaning and sterilization of medical equipment, instruments, and operating rooms. There are a lot of things a practical nurse tends to be in charge and become of this every person that wishes to be a practical nurse in Ontario must go to a college approved by the CNO (College of Nurses of Ontario) and complete a test that will grant will allow you to be recognized as a nurse. According to the College of Nurses of Ontario (n.d.), to successfully become a part of the practical nursing discourse community “A valid certificate of registration from CNO is required of all nurses who wish to practice nursing in Ontario” (para. 2).
Research and Analysis
Due to characteristics like acquired specific lexis, mechanisms of intercommunication among its members and an agreed set of common public goals, practical nursing is considered not only a profession but also a discourse community.
According to Swales (1990) “A discourse community has a broadly agreed set of common public goals” (p.471) and when it comes to the discourse community of practical nursing these agreed set of common public goals are known as the College of Nurses of Ontario practice standards and are valued and closely followed by this discourse community. They can be narrowed down to 7 goals that are constantly aimed be achieved by this discourse community. As mentioned by CNO (2006) these are, “accountability, continuing competence, ethics, knowledge, knowledge application, leadership, and relationships” (p.14). These agreed set of common goals are considered equally important because one can affect the other, for instance, knowledge will affect knowledge application, as you cannot apply knowledge without having it first.
As discussed earlier Practical Nursing also holds multiple means of intercommunication this is important because as Swales mentions (1990) “a discourse community has mechanisms of intercommunication among its members” (471), which means that for practical nursing to be even considered a discourse community it must have means of intercommunication. In Practical nursing those can be narrowed down into 2 categories, verbal, and written communication. As a practical nurse there is much information that sometimes needs to be passed on, and depending on how confidential it is, it will require a separate means of communication. For example, to supply feedback to a coworker multiple methods can be used such as face-to-face communication. Email or even text but when discussing private patient information face-to-face communication in an undisclosed location is preferred.
Swales (1990) once stated, “a discourse community has acquired some specific lexis” (473). As a result, of the amount of information that needs to be shared, it is not surprising that the practical nursing community has its own acquired lexis. A lot of these involve short forms to speed up the information-sharing process such as PRN (as needed), STAT (at once), BID (twice a day), or q6h (every 6 hours). In addition to these, we have acquired lexis that are used to refer to medical terms like bolus (food that has been chewed and mixed in the mouth with saliva or A single dose of a drug or other substance given over a short period of time), enteral feed (A form of nutrition that is delivered into the digestive system as a liquid), agglutination (clumping of cells) and erythrocytes (Red blood cell); medical conditions such as Tachycardia (heart rate that’s too fast) and trade or generic medication names like Acetaminophen also known as Tylenol or Ibuprofen also known as Advil.
Conclusions and Recommendations
As I have shown, the practical nursing discourse community has its own set of duties, goals, language, and mechanisms of intercommunication. Although becoming a part of this community may seem extremely difficult or overwhelming if it is something that is genuinely wanted it will not be impossible, especially since everything eventually will get easier. Considering my experience and thorough research there are 3 things I would recommend to a newcomer to make things even easier.
- Obtain the required 2-year college education and the certification needed to become a registered practical nurse that can provide the wide range of supports that come with the role.
- Seek a role in the workplace that will allow you to learn from the experience and advice of those who have been a part of this discourse community long enough to be considered professionals or experts.
- Allow yourself to be open-minded, as things can change, and people act differently, it is important to be open-minded to the latest ideas to block any personal biases that may come in the way of your Practical Nursing career.
While the world of medicine continues to grow, new things may begin to be introduced, while old information may start to evolve. Like most careers, Practical Nursing evolves with the world and in time you will find yourself progressing from a novice to an expert and will become the one giving the best recommendations to future newcomers.
References
College of Nurses of Ontario. (n.d.). Become a Nurse. Retrieved August 17, 2020, from https://www.cno.org/en/become-a-nurse/
College of Nurses of Ontario. (2006). Professional standards leadership – CNO. CNO. Retrieved January 30, 2023, from https://cno.org/globalassets/4-learnaboutstandardsandguidelines/prac/learn/modules/profstands/slides/leadership.pdf
Indeed. (n.d.). Licensed practical nurse (LPN) job description | indeed. Indeed. Retrieved January 30, 2023, from https://ca.indeed.com/hire/job-description/licensed-practical-nurse-lpn
Swales, J. (1990). The Concept of Discourse Community. Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings. 21-32.
Vendor, P. (2020, December 18). What are the different duties of an LPN? Prism Career Institute. Retrieved January 30, 2023, from https://www.prismcareerinstitute.edu/blog/breaking-down-the-different-duties-of-an-lpn/
