Professional Accountability Essay

As healthcare workers, we hear phrases like professional accountability and lifelong learning every so often. Mostly, we hear it during in-services and a few other times a year while adhering to our facility's education policy. Unfortunately, when our work environment foster valuing accountability and lifelong learning once in awhile, we miss the importance of accountability and the value of learning in our everyday practice. Learning doesn't take place a few times a year. It is a continuous process. One that is never complete and should happen everyday. Similar to how accountability isn't something we think about twice a year. We should think about accountability with every action we take. Accountability impacts our practice and the care we

I’ll remember the lessons I have learned. My first day at clinical, I can’t verbalize how nervous I was. And, to see how comfortable I felt in the last week is a testament alone to how impactful my experiences there were. Having a professional demeanor, allowed me a safety net to fall back into when I was feeling anxious. It allowed me to separate myself from my anxiety and to focus on my client and their care. Being a nurse is so much more than what I can do, it's how I can make others feel in their time of need. It’s not secret that I especially enjoyed caring for CS. I’ve never been one that felt I would want to be a psych nurse but I underestimated how good it would feel to make another person feel at ease, to make them smile. I felt incompetent because I couldn’t do much for my residents as a student nurse. I couldn’t take away their fear about possible amputation but I could assure that we would do whatever we could. I couldn’t fix the anguish CA was feelings due to her immobility but I could give her choices and allow her to make decisions. I could thank her for teaching me and value the knowledge she kindly

It was an efficient tool to communicate with the staff nurses about my resident. The staff nurses were confident in their ability and acted with ease in their practice. Learning to use SBAR helped me make the information concise and share what needed to be known. Because in a morning shift, so much happens but it’s hard to learn what’s the most important and needed assessments to share with experienced nurses. The staff nurse listened to CA lungs and so did I. It was reassuring that we heard the same congestion and came to similar conclusions. I knew CA had IS and nebulizer treatments in the morning. When I went to the nurse to tell her my assessment, she told me that CA usually refuses her treatments and that’s contributing to the worsening of her symptoms. It was almost natural to go back into the room and explain to CA that her nebulizer treatment would help her breathe better and cough up the mucus that is irritating her lungs.. She agreed. And, after the treatment, she felt better. It seems small but to me that was important. I knew what I needed to share with the nurse and what the next step would most likely be and to have that confirmed made me feel that I am learning and know more than I realize. It was nice to be able to help CA in more of nursing capacity. In other words, it was nice thinking like a