PRACTICE SUMMARY PAPER

NURS 403 Career Pathway- Expand Horizons

Practice Summary Paper

Purpose of the Assignment

The purpose of this paper is to guide you through a process of self-reflection and selfevaluation to discover the scope of your personal and professional development while
enrolled in the RN>BSN nursing program at Old Dominion University.
Approach to the Assignment
I reflected on my academic and professional growth throughout my nursing career of four
years. I have grown immeasurably since completing my ADN at Rappahannock
Community College and moving toward conclusion of the ODU RN to BSN program.
Reason for Inclusion
This paper reflects directly upon my growth as a BSN student through academics and
direct contact nursing care.
Critical Thinking
Uses nursing and other appropriate theories and models to guide professional
practice.
In this assignment I discuss how my practice is guided by Florence Nightingale and her
model behavior of nursing. This shows the fundamental duty or function of a nurse is to
enable the patient to meet his or her own self-care needs to achieve the patients best
possible state of health. This is an illustration of advocating for the wellness of patients.
Engages in creative problem solving.
The Therapeutic Nursing Intervention paper allowed me to develop and propose ways to
combat polypharmacy problems, such as: checklist for effective medication hand-off
between departments and nurse. This paper also lists creative ways to decrease pain in the
post-operative patient including distraction mechanisms, early ambulation, therapeutic
massage and imagery.

Revises actions and goals based on evidence rather than conjecture.

I needed to think critically to assess each situation and patient to develop possible
solutions to prevent further instances of unresolved pain and make recommendations
based on evidence-based practice. Evidence-based practice was utilized to better nursing
implementations on the unit which I am employed. These inventions included the
utilization of a standard pain scale, reassessing one hour after medication administration,
and reassessing each patients pain level every four hours.

Nursing Practice
Applies appropriate knowledge of major health problems to guide nursing practice.

This paper illustrates various personal experiences and assignments that illustrate my
knowledge of health issues that guided my daily practice.
Implements traditional nursing care practices as appropriate to provide holistic health
care to diverse populations across the lifespan.
In this paper I address this characteristic while taking care of an oncology patient. I
tailored my nursing care plan around the patients mental, physical and spiritual needs to
include pain medication and rest. I tried to optimize his physical health so that he could
focus on his varied emotions regarding his physical state and family life.
Demonstrates an awareness of complimentary modalities and their usefulness in
promoting health.
This paper illustrates instance where I used different modalities like environmental
changes and healing touch in the care of an oncology patient while encouraging the sister
of the Middle Eastern patient to bring culturally appealing food to try to get the patient to
eat. Also complimentary modalities were used in the Teaching Project Summary and
Needs Assessment to properly educate and communicate with staff, and clients of varying
ages.
Communication
Expresses oneself and communicates effectively with diverse groups and disciplines

using a variety of media in a variety of contexts.

The needs assessment and discerning the types of learners of the target audience enabled
effective training of staff in teaching strategies that could be applied to all client
education opportunities and staff mandatory training.
Uses therapeutic communication within the nurse-patient relationship
This paper gives examples in therapeutic communication using real life situations
(oncology patient, cultural patient, elderly clients, and mental health patient). The
Teaching Project Summary paper specifically dealt with effective verbal and non-verbal
communication amongst team members in how to properly delegate to achieve wholesome patient care.

 Adapts communication methods to patients with special needs

See above. Communication with Middle Eastern patient also required interpreter and
family to effectively communicate because the patient spoke little English. There is also
an example with a patient whom could not speak utilizing the art of sign language and lip
reading.
Teaching
Provides teaching to patients and/or professionals about healthcare procedures and
technologies in preparation for and following nursing or medical interventions
Evidence for this characteristic is mentioned in the Health Planning Project (Healthy
People 2020) and the Teaching Project Summary paper.
Provides relevant and sensitive health education information and counseling to
patients, and families, in a variety of situations and settings.
This characteristic is demonstrated in the personal experiences throughout the paper.
Evaluates the efficacy of health promotion and education modalities for use in a variety
of settings with diverse populations
The needs assessment survey allowed for accommodation of individual learning types to
best construct a successful program to improve communication and instruction to the
certified nursing assistants from the registered nurses on the unit. The need assessment
survey stressed the use mutual respect and appreciation to ensure understanding of all
learners. Also in the Practice Summary paper, educational needs were evaluated for the
post-operative patient on the incentive spirometer by means of return demonstration.

Research
Differentiates between descriptive nursing literature and published reports of nursing
research.
The Business Case Analysis paper was chosen as an example for this paper because I
needed to use evidence-based practice and research results to propose solutions for shortstaffing. Nursing literature gave me the nurses perspective to understand the effects of
short-staffing but I needed research and data to support solutions.
Applies research-based knowledge from nursing as the basis for culturally sensitive
practice.
This paper highlights several assignments and personal experience to support this
characteristic.
Evaluates research that focuses on the efficacy and effectiveness of nursing
interventions.

The Safety Performance Improvement/Change Theory paper used data analysis to

identify driving/restraining forces for the problem, evidence based solutions to combat
the problem and develop a teaching plan to correct the problem of misidentifying
patients.
Shares research findings with colleagues.
Teaching Project Summary and The Safety Performance Improvement/Change Theory
paper demonstrate this characteristic.
Leadership

Initiates community partnerships to establish health promotion goals and implements

strategies to meet those goals.
The assignment highlights this characteristic in the Healthy Planning (Healthy People
2020) paper in which my group had to develop an education plan for the community of
Gloucester County. Research identified successful programs in other communities to
implement this health program. New strategies were identified for providing the
community with information, tools and resources for promoting healthy blood pressure
and decreasing heart disease and stroke.

Organizes, manages, and evaluates the development of strategies to promote health

communities.
See above section
Professionalism
Understands the effect of legal and regulatory processes on nursing practice and health
care delivery, as well as limits to ones own scope of practice.
The Safety Performance Improvement/Change and Business Case Analysis defined in
this paper illustrated this characteristic. The Safety Performance Improvement/Change
defines standards and safety goals used by the Joint Commission as a basis for practice in
hospitals. The Business Case Analysis highlights patient care and the legal effects of
short staffing to a hospital.
Advocates for professional standards of practice using organizational and political
processes.
The Safety Performance Improvement/Change paper mentioned in this paper seeks to
develop standards of practice to prevent patient identification problems.
Culture

 Integrates knowledge of cultural diversity in performing nursing interventions.

This characteristic is demonstrated in the personal experience with the Middle Eastern
patient and the discussion on professionalism. The way a nurse behaves or appears to a
patient directly affects the patients perception of their care and a patients culture directly
affects their perception of the nurse. It is important to respect this notion.
Articulates an understanding of how human behavior is affected by culture, race,
religion, gender, lifestyle and age.
The Middle Eastern patient was disrespectful to female nursing staff. He was provided
with the opportunity to only receive male nursing care. This greatly impacted his attitude
toward staffing and mutual respect was reached. Nurses from his country are not priority;
this cultural barrier was accepted and the patient was able to work toward a healthy
nurse-patient relationship once his cultural background was accepted.