Brianna Sanford

Robert Vincent

HDF 417

30 April 2019

Now that I am concluding on the semester and my internship in general, I am realizing

that there is a lot that I learned both inside and outside the nursing world. Looking back at my

initial learning outcomes, which included, “#3, “Student will demonstrate the ability to manage

emotions”, #9, “Student will demonstrate practice of the personal values statement”, #11,

“Student will describe goals and objective statements regarding personal issues, career issues,

and community issues”, and #12, “Student will show evidence of goals and objectives that were

planned and achieved,” and now reflecting on them at the end of the semester, I finally feel as

though I achieved the goals I had set for myself. I specifically picked these outcomes because I

knew that they would be challenging for me personally especially in a nursing setting knowing

my personality. This internship as a whole tested me in all of the above areas and made me really

challenge myself to grow as a student, nurse and leader.

There is one outcome that I know that I have most definitely mastered throughout my

internship, which is outcome #3. When I first picked to work on outcome #3, my reason for

wanting to address this outcome specifically was, “For outcome #3, this will be the first time

caring for actual patients and being assigned a specific patient for me and only me to care for.

Obviously, these older adults are in care facilities for a reason, and sometimes those reasons can

be sad or overwhelming. Through this experience, I hope to gain the ability to manage my

emotions and remain professional in these settings in order to ensure I am giving the patient the

best care they can receive.” Now that I have finished my clinical internship, I have really been
able to work on managing my emotions with the older adults. When I first started, I was

constantly overwhelmed by what a different lifestyle they had to live. I couldn’t imagine having

trouble walking, using the bathroom, or being extremely lonely. After getting comfortable in the

facility I was able to really focus on suppressing my emotions in order to give the best patient

care. When having my own patients, something clicked in my head that these patients needed me

to have a mindset on helping them feel better and achieve their daily tasks rather than have me

feeling bad or upset for them when they weren’t even upset themselves. For example, one of my

patients the other day was having trouble standing and walking on her own. She expressed that

she was very tired that day and just wanted to relax, however it was in her care plan that she had

to get up and walk and to not remain dormant for an entire day. Originally, I wanted to be upset

for her because something as simple as standing up out of a chair was painful and exhausting.

However, I realized that I had the ability to not make the simple task so painful and exhausting

and realized how much better she would feel if she would stand and walk, even if it was only for

a few steps. Where I originally would have been very upset and emotional at this situation, I

have now been able to train my brain to look at the flipside of things, which overall has helped

me manage my emotions in the workplace. I was able to get her up and moving, and rather

expressed my excitement and joy for her in my emotions, rather than expressing my saddened

and concerned emotions, which would not have helped the situation. After completion of this

task, I was able to truly realize not only how much my emotions could affect my outlook and

care, but also affect my patient’s mood, which is why I have created a goal for myself to only

always express positive emotion, and never negative ones, specifically in front of my patients.

The next outcome I focused on next was #9, “Student will demonstrate practice of the

personal values statement.” My top 5 values are love, bravery, fairness, leadership and social
intelligence. I have found these values coming out in my internship highly, in many different

aspects and at many different times. The one value that was always prevalent no matter what was

love. No matter what at the end of the day, I love what I’m doing, love the people I am

surrounded by, and love the lessons that I am learning along the way, even if the lessons learned

are tough sometimes. I always feel that I didn’t choose nursing, nursing chose me. Whether I am

in the classroom, in the community, or just existing in society, I love the world of nursing and

the person I have been since joining it. My next value is bravery. While bravery comes in all

different forms, there were a few times in my internship that I believed bravery was the only way

the task would be completed. For example, while being in a geriatric unit, especially one with

several dementia patients, there are often dirty tasks that must be completed. When others shied

away from changing diapers, bathing patients, and feeding dementia patients, I was able to use

my bravery to test my limits and step up to the plate to care for my patients. Fairness and social

intelligence often came up when interacting with the patients directly. No matter the mental

status of the patient, I had to remain fair with the patients and treat them appropriately, no matter

how they treated me or if they would remember or not. Social intelligence was always put to the

test, whether it was building relationships with the patients, the other students in my internship,

or the workers of the health care facility. Lastly, leadership was evident with one vital sign that I

could do in my sleep; glucose testing. Since I have been testing my own glucose since I was 6, I

often helped my other classmates test blood glucose on the patients until they were able to do it

on their own. Not that leadership is always taking charge and helping, however in this instance it

was an example that needed charge to be taken.

My next outcome of focus was #11, “Student will describe goals and objective statements

regarding personal issues, career issues, and community issues.” A goal that I had personally was
to make sure that I was eating healthier this semester. After a tough first semester of this

academic year, my health was questioned and I was not able to be as successful as I wanted to. I

didn’t want to leave bed, I lived off delivery food and coffee, and if I drank one bottle of water a

day I was lucky. After that, I was absolutely determined to make sure that this semester I was

taking care of my health by eating better, exercising, taking my vitamins and drinking water. As

far as my career issues, I was determined this semester to score above a 73 on all of my exams in

all of my classes. In order to be an efficient and stress-free nurse in the future, I want to pass all

of my exams, proving that I know my material and am able to be the best nurse possible. As far

as community issues, I really wanted to focus on spending more time being interactive within the

community, including those around me who I am already close with along with reaching out to

new people who are both within the community and not. I believe that our society is lacking face

to face interaction, and I am determined to do what I can to get it back.

Finally, #12, “Student will show evidence of goals and objectives that were planned and

achieved.” I achieved my personal goal of keeping a healthy lifestyle by downloading

MyFitnessPal and inputting all of my information throughout the day. Not only did this hold me

accountable for what I was doing, but I was also receiving notifications throughout the day,

reminding me to drink water, exercise, and meet my nutrient goal for the day. This allowed me to

stay healthy and lose some weight, which was a bonus. As far as my career goal of getting above

a 73 on all exams, I was able to successfully achieve that goal. I prioritized my school work over

everything else and tested my knowledge by using the teach back method to teach those around

me what I was learning. After many late nights and coffees, I completed my goal and have never

felt so confident or prepared. With my community goal, I achieved this in multiple ways. First, I

made it a point to sit and talk with at least 2 patients a day to talk for more than 30 minutes. I
often found that these patient’s families were in a completely different state and they never had

company to come and talk to them. Every single time I sat and talked to someone, they ranted

about how much they appreciated it and that this was the most human contact they’ve had in

months. I also outreached into outside my immediate community by becoming a tour guide.

Being able to talk to people from all over the country and world on a daily basis has brought me

so much joy, sharing information about my journey as well as hearing about theirs. It is amazing

how different everyone is, and how different our backgrounds are, but we can still have

something in common, no matter how big or small. As far as reaching out to my friends and

those I surround myself with, I have made it a point to always reach out and make plans with

those I care about. From something small like eating lunch in the dining hall, to nights out for

dinner in Providence, I have found an old love in having face to face interaction with those I love

and how much more special it makes the relationship.

I was integrated into the site culture by jumping in and helping the CNAs with their

typical duties, and basically carrying a CNA roll. Our integration was satisfactory, as we got so

much hands on experience and were able to learn so much because of it. We built and maintained

relationships with the staff by helping them with whatever they needed and never overstepping

boundaries. I affected the internship site by constantly bringing laughs and smiles where ever I

went. I never let anyone pass me by without a smile on their face and always did whatever I

could to make those around me genuinely happy. I have changed because I now have so much

more confidence in myself as a nurse. As far as handling difficult patients, having experience

with mentally and physically disabled patients, and passing medications to patients, I feel

confident in my abilities and am ready to expand my knowledge and experience as a nursing

major, and eventually a nurse.