Running head: Midterm Reflective Journal

Midterm Reflective Journal

Christina L. Vidrich
University of St. Marys

Running head: Midterm Reflective Journal

Week One focusing on Development of Nursing as a Profession

was challenging to say the least. I struggled to navigate around the system,
but slowly figured it out. Remembering how to get into the groove of
managing my time with work and school again also proved to be difficult.
However, Im determined to complete this program and pushed ahead. I
enjoyed reading about the future of nursing and the opportunities in the
advancements of nursing education. This first week also had a few moments
of contemplating giving up my goal of obtaining a masters degree but having
a great support system, i.e. my daughters, that encourages me, will make it
a worthwhile journey.
Week Two concentrated on the Development of Nursing Theory,
Knowledge, and Science and was quite delightful as nursing theory is very
interesting and our practice is based heavily on theory. It really shed light on
the perspective that nursing education needs to incorporate theory into the
curriculum. Ample theory is taught in the BSN program, and the
incorporation of theory and research will only provide better patient
outcomes and create more competent nurses. This week made me reflect on
my own practice and how much more proficiently I could use specific
theories to guide my nursing knowledge. I inadvertently always find myself
reflecting back to the work of Florence Nightingale as many theorists have
centered their work on Nightingales ideas. I also love the human compassion
that is needed to be a nurse and the care one in the profession must provide.
I still found myself rushed with schoolwork but continue to layout my routine.

Running head: Midterm Reflective Journal

It is a challenge to get all the reading done and balance my time between
work, school, and personal life.

As Week Three approached and Patient-Centered Care became

the topic of discussion, I still found myself struggling to navigate the system;
I spent plenty of time just trying to figure out where to post assignments.
ThingLink was also a challenge for the class as a whole. I felt a lot of
frustration and anger while dealing with it. Turns out, it wasnt that bad after
I played around with it and figured out how to use it. Although, I felt I let
down my classmates a bit as others were confused and I didnt really lend a
helping handbut once I was finished posting my links, it was hard to find
time to keep checking the site and the progress of others. I did, however, like
all the information each of us provided and enjoyed watching the videos
selected by my classmates. The disaster nursing was great, and of the
Roaches 5Cs, competence comes to mind as knowing that I can respond to a
disaster and provide my skills to help. The cross cultural site was informative
as well and overall it was a successful week.
Week Four covered Interdisciplinary Teams and accompanying
that has been an abundance of content to cover and it seems like a lot of
assignments are due. I still think ThingLink is really confusing to some of my
classmates, but I liked the ThingLink topic of lateral bullyingit is sad to
think this happens on a regular basis. The paper on nurse-physician
collaboration really hit home as nurses struggle with this issue every day; I

Running head: Midterm Reflective Journal

do on a regular basis, so I can completely understand how it impacts patient

outcomes. I enjoyed the articles also as they covered whats going on in
nursing today, and the FEMA incident control site was great. Conscience is a
great C to reflect upon because its the right thing to do. I enjoyed the focus
on teamwork this week and cannot wait to apply what I have taken from it to
my work environment.
Week Five incorporated PICO questions and evidenced based
practice which was great to learn about. I loved to see my classmates posts
about evidence based practice. What a wonderful opportunity to be a part of
as each classmate brought excellent research information that I will certainly
use in my practice. Roachs Cs of Commitment and Compassion are
reflections to practice as I can share my compassion at the bedside of a
patient and have a chance to interact and communicate with my patient. I
have a commitment to take the opportunities I have learned in this class and
integrate those to my practice to provide outstanding care.
Week Six Quality and Safety Education in Nursing (QSEN)
competencies-Root-cause Analysis: Competence is a state of having the
knowledge, judgment, skills, energy, experience and motivation required to
respond appropriately to the demands of our profession (Roach). It speaks
directly to competencies and what the outcome is when someone is not
performing proficiently. The reason for attending a root cause analysis (RCA)
or Failure Mode Effect Analysis (FMEA) is as described above. Its
discouraging to have to go to a RCA, but there is always the opportunity to

Running head: Midterm Reflective Journal

improve the process as it is potentially a system error that caused the event.
I went to a collaborative this week and the lectureto my surprisewas on
root causes analysis. The lecture also discussed FMEA, so I was excited to
listen to what I had been studying.
Week Seven Informatics, AACN - Social Media and Nursing
Webinar discussed what the role of the Informatics nurse was. It seems to
be a very developing profession. In a world of electronic communication,
nursing needs to be on the forefront of technology. I found it interesting
knowing how my classmates have embraced the EMR. It is a great tool to
have and certainly has it benefits to nursing. I was well informed about the
scope of social media but any reaffirmation about the use and abuse of social
media was exhilarating.

Its thought-provoking to think that Florence

Nightingale instituted a system of record keeping and adapted a statistical

reporting method known as polar area diagram ( McEwen,2011).
During Week Eight Complex Adaptive Systems, I found the video
by Pat Ebrightt to be very interesting. It suggests looking through new lens at
processes, although systems are complex and nurses are constantly
adapting to unexpected changes in their environment, this could possibly
assist the staff nurse ( Mentorsgallery 2007). I found this to be difficult to
adapt to situations and having the resources available to do so in a timely
manner. It seems in caring for patients, the acuity can change immediately
and it would be beneficial to have an extra nurse pronto, but that does not
happen where the real work is. I liked all the classmates take on using this

Running head: Midterm Reflective Journal

model in their practice. The Scope of Practice - Group ThingLink Forum was
great; it was neat to see all the tags and videos come together. The Synergy
model was a learning processit is a great model and having to critique the
model let me dig deeper into the depths of its theory. I did not think about
the use of theory really but I feel like now I can stop and apply it to my
practice. This has been learning and rewarding eight weeks, and it excites
me to continue on my journey.

References
McEwen, M. & Wills E. M. (2011). Theoretical Basis for Nursing. (3rd ed. (p. 123) Philadelphia
PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Mentorsgallery. (2007, uploaded 2010). Pat Ebright - Complex adaptive
system theory [Video]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=VNFFEJqz9YA