Professional Nursing Notes

Professional Nursing Overview

Week 1

  • Nursing Profession Characteristics

    • Requires great intelligence, motivation, and determination.

    • Influences personal and professional development.

    • Quote from Karen Davison emphasizes the complexity of nursing.

Learning Objectives

  • Professional Identity

    • Discuss the role of professional identity in the care of adult clients.

  • Caregiver Issues

    • Identify strategies to address professional caregiver issues.

  • Client-Centered Care

    • Examine the nurse’s role when providing client-centered care.

  • Interprofessional Collaboration

    • Explain the role of interprofessional collaborative practice to optimize client outcomes.

  • Evidence-Based Practice

    • Explore evidence-based practice for promoting safe, quality care of the adult client.

  • Clinical Judgment

    • Use clinical judgment when caring for adult clients.

What is a Nurse?

  • Definition of the nurse's role and functions within the healthcare system.

Professional Identity in Nursing

Background

  • Nursing is a recently recognized profession within the healthcare field.

  • Professional identity in nursing involves:

    • Behaviors

    • Knowledge

    • Values

    • Inner sense of self

Professionalism Characteristics

  • Implications of professionalism in nursing include:

    • Caregiver Issues: Understand and address challenges faced by nurses.

    • Nurse's Role: Focus on interdisciplinary collaboration and effective communication.

    • Evidence-Based Practice: Utilize current research to inform care practices.

    • Clinical Judgment: Apply critical thinking and judgment in practice.

Caring for Clients

  • Client-Centered Care:

    • Involves delivering nursing in various settings tailored to client needs.

    • Requires specialized knowledge, skills, values, and a professional attitude.

    • Caring is integral to maintaining professionalism and identity.

Professional Identity Definition

  • ANA Definition of Nursing (2015):

    • “Nursing is the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and abilities, prevention of illness and injury, facilitation of healing, alleviation of suffering through the diagnosis and treatment of human response, and advocacy in the care of individuals, families, groups, communities, and populations.”

  • Professional Identity in Nursing:

    • Defined by the International Society for Professional Identity as:

    • “A sense of oneself, and in relation to others, that is influenced by characteristics, norms, and values of the nursing discipline, resulting in an individual thinking, acting, and feeling like a nurse.”

Domains of Professional Identity

  • Key Domains:

    • Values and Ethics: Importance of caring, integrity, diversity, inclusion, excellence, and adherence to a code of ethics.

    • Knowledge: Commitment to education, lifelong learning, current research, and competency in nursing practices.

    • Leadership: Essential attributes required for all nurses across various settings.

    • Professional Comportment: Demonstrating professionalism in daily nursing activities.

Professional Caregiver Issues

Common Nursing Issues

  • Nursing can be rewarding but has several significant challenges.

  • Importance of understanding these challenges to empower nurses and foster resilience.

  • Recognition that nursing fundamentally changes one’s perspective and self-concept.

Issues and Strategies

Long Hours (1 of 6)

  • Strategies to cope:

    • Prepare and organize daily tasks.

    • Establish healthy habits and routines.

    • Utilize physical aids and coworker support.

    • Appropriate footwear and routines off work are crucial.

Workplace Hazards (2 of 6)

  • Strategies include:

    • Stay home when ill.

    • Adhere to infection control protocols and maintain proper hygiene.

    • Address bullying and harassment through conflict management and a zero-tolerance policy.

    • Ensure administrative support for reporting safety concerns.

Nursing Shortage (3 of 6)

  • Suggested strategies:

    • Cultivate a positive workplace culture and increase nurse diversity.

    • Involve nursing professionals in planning processes.

    • Offer incentives and mentorship for new nurses and students.

Stress and Professional Burnout (4 of 6)

  • Identification of risk factors and manifestations (both physical and emotional).

  • Strategies for support among nurses and lifestyle management:

    • Attention to work-life balance, support systems, and stress reduction techniques.

Mandatory Overtime and Workplace Violence (5 of 6)

  • Addressing issues:

    • Focus on self-care and maintaining healthy lifestyle practices.

    • Advocate for policies supporting appropriate staffing.

    • Recognize risk factors and follow through in reporting violence at work.

Moral Distress (6 of 6)

  • Strategies to combat moral distress:

    • Identify the source and recognize signs of distress.

    • Engage in self-care and critically debrief after incidents.

    • Support colleagues in distress and advocate for positive change.

Discussion Questions on Issues and Strategies

  • Identify a potential workplace issue concerning you: what strategies could you apply?

  • Discuss self-care techniques currently available to manage stress.

  • Reflect on how being a nurse may positively affect your life.

Client-Centered Care

  • The interdisciplinary team collaborates to develop client care plans.

  • Essential focus on mental, social, and medical client needs.

  • Key factors influencing care include:

    • Health care disparities

    • Advocacy matters

    • Client education and rights

  • Outcomes:

    • Enhances client satisfaction and well-being.

    • Increases job satisfaction among health professionals.

Healthcare Disparities

  • Influences on health include:

    • Social determinants of health

    • Geographic location and access to medical care

    • Economic status and occupation conditions

    • Levels of education.

Advocacy

  • Definition: promotion of client rights and interests in an individualized manner.

  • Nursing tasks in advocacy can include:

    • Education and referrals

    • Active listening and therapeutic communication

    • Assessing individual client needs.

Client Education

  • Importance of client education to empower engagement in their own care:

    • Reduces complications and readmissions.

    • Aims to enhance self-sufficiency.

    • Should be tailored to health literacy, language, and cultural background.

Client Rights

  • Understanding patient rights, specifically referencing the Patient Bill of Rights, which outlines 15 essential rights.

Discussion Question on Client Rights

  • Can a client refuse medical care?

Interprofessional Collaboration

  • Each client’s experience is unique, necessitating effective collaboration among healthcare professionals.

  • Benefits of interprofessional collaboration include:

    • Improved client outcomes

    • Better resource coordination.

  • Key dynamics involve communication among staff and delegating tasks appropriately.

Discussion Questions on Interprofessional Collaboration

  • If you witness an unsafe situation, how should you communicate with the interdisciplinary team?

  • Provide a concise description of the nurse's role within the interdisciplinary team, emphasizing professionalism over tasks.

Evidence-Based Practice

  • Clinical decisions and interventions must stem from scientific evidence to yield optimal outcomes.

  • Importance of lifelong learning:

    • Integral to nursing practice and client care.

  • Includes understanding the five-step research process, focusing on quality and safety in outcomes.

Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) Competencies

  • Emphasizes the following areas:

    • Client-centered care

    • Teamwork and collaboration

    • Evidence-based practice

    • Quality improvement

    • Safety and informatics

  • Adheres to the National Patient Safety Goals (NPSGs) tailored to current safety needs.

Using Clinical Judgment

  • Definition of clinical judgment in nursing as an essential skill for effective client care.

  • Core elements of clinical judgment include: - Professional attributes.

  • Models for clinical judgment:

    • NCSBN Clinical Judgment Measurement Model (CJMM) - Tanner’s Clinical Judgment Model

    • Nursing Process Cycle (Assessment, Diagnosis, Planning, Implementation, and Evaluation).

NCSBN Clinical Judgment Measurement Model Layers

  • Client Needs (Layer 1)

  • Cues Recognition and Hypotheses (Layer 2)

  • Environmental and Individual Factors (Layer 3)

  • Nursing Process and Care Outcomes (Layer 4)

Lesson Reflection Activity

  • Questions to prompt self-reflection post-lesson:

    • Required nursing knowledge for specific client care contexts.

    • Understanding the clinical judgment process during client status changes.

    • Identification of assessment findings indicating client deterioration.

    • Interdisciplinary disciplines anticipated in the client care process.

    • Personal development in clinical competence and confidence.

    • Activities crucial for health promotion among elderly clients.

    • Additional inquiries post-lesson.