Will Interactive Student’s Name:
Institutional Affiliation:
Will Interactive
The registered nurse’s role was to implement practical communication skills to make a difference for the patients. Communication skills involve gestures, facial expressions, tone, and terminologies used to express a specific situation. As a registered nurse, I communicated with various clinicians in the scene, and I realized that how I communicate with them affects the patient outcome (ODPHP, 2020). The clinicians involved in the scene had requests for various essential needs, and they all seem to believe and expect that I am readily available to assist anytime they needed help. In receiving a sequence of requests, I had to ensure that I
demonstrated patience and understanding of each person's situation. As I received the requests, I had to calmly explain to the requestors that I had to finish what I am doing to go to the next task.
At the communication station, all information needed recording whether it was an emergency or not; thus, I handled the requests one at a time.
Accepting to tackle all the tasks was one of the mistakes that led to unexpected outcomes.
Other than including effective communication skills, I made a mistake of showing everyone that I am available, and eventually, the tasks were overwhelming for me. Some became emergencies among the functions, and I had to seek help from the other clinicians. I failed to explain to the others that I had ongoing tasks and did not find out whether their requests could wait. Once they made their requests, they never returned to continue with them because they were assured of having handed them to a responsible person. Confronting other clinicians in front of the patient was also unexpected to me, and it requires an apology to the patient and for other clinicians, further explanations for my reactions were needed in the absence of the patient.
The connection of this assignment to my field is the various tasks that the nurse runs in
the hospital, including handling diverse patients' needs directly and indirectly. As a nurse,
competency in the different clinical procedures is essential to ensure patient outcome quality.
Nursing also requires collaboration with others to achieve the goals of each task. My experience
in nursing is that a nurse cannot work alone, mostly when handling various patients. Assistance
will be needed to fill in the data for each patient's check-up, treatment, and medicine
administration. Any changes made during practical care should be recorded and communicated
to the responsible clinicians to ensure efficient follow-up. Through this assignment, I learned that
each person has a role to play, and the responsibilities are connected such that one cannot
function or be perfected without the other. Multitasking and work pressure can cause burnout
and the nurse can guard against burnout in their personal, and professional life.
The ways to take these lessons in my workplace are establishing guidelines that will
enhance shared purpose in the workplace (House, & Havens, 2017). The policies would include
the procedures the nurses should follow when requesting assistance from their colleagues. The
procedures should involve checking whether the patient's need should be handed to another nurse
or complete the care procedure and eliminate the assumption that the nurse at the desk is always
available to drop anything they are doing to take over another task. Learning communication
skills will be involved as a training program so that the nurses can be able to understand normal
working communication behaviors and emergency case communication behaviors (bakers et al.,
2017). Learning the different communication styles will help the nurses differentiate the situation
and wisely choose the steps taken towards each case. Other lessons may not require training
sessions, but regular meetings to communicate work experiences and provide responses on how
to react towards each case would be sufficient. The meetings can also teach practical ways for
nurses to implement to prevent infections to patients and colleagues. Evaluation of nursing skills
will help assess the skills that the nurses have acquired during training and meeting sessions.
At the primary level the choices I made included emphasizing on hand washing and
appropriate use of the medical gloves. The need for washing hands is necessary for both the
clinicians and the patients and I encouraged everyone to be cautious and ensure that the
clinicians wash hands before and after handling patients. The patients should ensure they wash
hands after visiting the washroom and before taking meals as well.
Secondary preventive measures included identifying cases of infection earliest possible
especially for patients who are being handled by various clinicians and provide early treatment to
prevent transmission of pathogens. Early treatment will protect the people within the facility
from further infections. The patients and the clinicians were educated about signs of sickness that
will require medical attention. Education was both at individual and group levels.
The tertiary preventive measures involved reducing the impact of infections by
minimizing suffering through maximized methods of treatment that ensured quick and effective
recovery for the patients. Screening of the patients was done to prevent complications that may
be caused by the illness. Provision of guidelines on how to lead a life with infections and be able
to participate in social life was offered to the patients. Follow up for patients who had been
discharged was done to ensure that they adhered to medication regimen as well as monitoring
changes and assist them in maintaining an independent daily life.
References
Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP), (2020). Partnering to Heal.
https://health.gov/our-work/health-care-quality/trainings-resources/partnering-heal
House, S., & Havens, D. (2017). Nurses’ and physicians’ perceptions of nurse-physician
collaboration.JONA: The Journal of Nursing Administration, 47(3), 165-
171.https://doi.org/10.1097/nna.0000000000000460
Baker, D., Anderson, L., & Johnson, J. (2016). Building student and family-centered care
coordination through ongoing delivery system design. NASN School Nurse, 32(1), 42-
49.https://doi.org/10.1177/1942602x16654171
