Nursing: Enhancing and Developing Nursing Skills

Nursing is an art and a science and exists to promote health and well being for patients and their families. Nursing school prepares new graduates with a foundation to which they can build upon in the world of patient care. By keeping in mind the patient care needs in all aspects of consideration through the mind; body and soul nurses can be more proactive in-patient centered care in their approach to nursing. Through subjective and objective, data nurses can strive to provide high quality care. Nursing instinct is crafted from learned knowledge, real experiences and the development of personal experiences as well as personal and learned philosophies by incorporating evidence based observations, testing and proven theories. Nursing is not for the weak. Nurses need to be strong, independent and ready to advocate for the patients as well as their profession. Nurses are selfless, trusted caretakers with a title that comes with great responsibility as well as great personal satisfaction.

As a new nurse, I was not prepared for the level of caring I would be faced with as an associate degree nurse. There are some things nursing school simply cannot teach in a two-year program. I was fresh off orientation when I had the patient of a lifetime. He was an older gentleman who was considered by the nursing staff on my unit as “impossible to please”. Being new to nursing and concerned with pleasing everyone as well as, applying everything I learned in nursing school and orientation at the hospital, I worked I barely got to know the patients and families I cared for.

All the new tasks, information and double checks left little time for psychosocial issues. I knew these were important, but I was overwhelmed ...

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...ons need to continue to fight for more autonomy and scope of practice needs to be evaluated for utilizing all skills developed or potentially established in training.

References

Berkowiztz, B. (2013, December). CUSON Newsletter - December 2013. Retrieved March 23, 2014, from http://www.cumc.columbia.edu/nursing/newsletter/201312/nursesinthemedia.php

McEwen, M., & Wills, E. M. (2011). Philosophy, Science, and Nursing. In Theoretical basis for nursing (3rd ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Wolters Kluwer/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

Small, D. C., & Small, R. M. (2011). Medscape: Medscape Access. Retrieved March 23,

2014, from http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/751637_4

What is Nursing? (2014). Retrieved March 23, 2014, from

http://www.nursingworld.org/EspeciallyForYou/What-is-Nursing.