Essay Instructions
The essay needs to address the following topics:
- Discuss the personal qualities and attributes that you think will be useful as well as those that you feel need further development in preparation for the nursing profession. Provide your own definition of cultural competence, ethical sensitivity, leadership and life-long learning as well as how you may incorporate these concepts in your professional practice.
- Discuss how a graduate education in nursing will impact your future career goals.
I am a Registered Nurse working in Psychiatric Unit for almost twenty years. Looking forward to gain an admission for Master in Nursing :Psychiaric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner.
ORDER A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER HERE !!
Personal Qualities and Attributes
Taking the next step from being a nurse to a nurse practitioner is important and will be affected by many factors that will determine whether one becomes a successful nurse practitioner. Naturally, a successful nurse practitioner embodies numerous characteristics, with some including personal strengths and qualities that one is born with, while others include attributes that can be built or strengthened when necessary to become a successful national practitioner. Some of the personal qualities and attributes that are useful to the nursing profession and especially the psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner include attentiveness, compassion, integrity, communication, empathy, time management, leadership and professionalism.
Nurse practitioner needs to have compassion for their patients and all the people they work with. Nurse practitioners and, more specifically, PMHNPs should therefore try to understand the potential suffering of patients and let the patients understand that they care and support them in their journey. A nurse practitioner should remain vigilant of any incidences of compassion burnout that can result in showing low levels of compassion to patients. NPs should always adopt perspectives that can help them to be more sympathetic with their patients.
Integrity is also an important personal attribute in the nursing profession. Integrity can help in building patient-provider trust, which is the foundation of healthcare relationships. By having integrity, nurses are therefore able to promote transparency with patients and ensure that patients have all the important information that may help to enhance their health and well-being. The lack of integrity and dishonesty can negatively affect the well-being of patients and also compromise patient safety.
Empathy is also an important personal attribute in the nursing profession. Being empathetic therefore makes up one of the most important qualities of a great nurse practitioner. Being empathetic is therefore similar to having compassion, although having empathy allows a nurse to put themselves in the patient’s situation and identify with the patients. Having empathy fosters trust between a patient and a healthcare provider and boosts their relationships.
On the other hand, there are different personal qualities and attributes that I feel will require further development to prepare for the nursing profession. These include attentiveness, communication, time management and leadership. Attentiveness is an important attribute in the nursing profession because when dealing with patient’s healthcare practitioners need to be attentive to what patients tell them and observe issues on the patient records and examinations. Improving attentiveness can also help a nurse practitioner to gain an in-depth understanding of the different health challenges of patients and provide amicable solutions to different health challenges. Communication is also another personal attribute that is needed to improve in preparation for the nursing profession. Being able to communicate with colleagues and patients and even with the management in a healthcare facility can make nurse practitioners be more successful in their practice. This is because healthcare delivery requires an interdisciplinary team that is involved in providing adequate health care services to patients. Poor communication skills can bring challenges in the healthcare environment and lead to the creation of dangerous patient encounters.
Time management is also an important skill that is needed to improve in preparation for the nurse practitioner role. Increasing workload demands and numerous patients have made it important for nurse practitioners to manage their time effectively. Managing time effectively is therefore essential for a nurse practitioner both in outpatient and inpatient settings. Effective time management can therefore help a nurse practitioner to achieve more in a limited time.
Finally, leadership is an important trait that I will need to work on improving in preparation for the nursing profession. A nurse practitioner is one of the health care team leaders who need to combine several characteristics, including having confidence, effective communication skills and integrity to guide team members to achieve the best outcomes for patients.
Definitions
Cultural Competence
In my view, cultural competence is the ability of an individual to interact and effectively understand people from other cultures. For an individual to effectively have cultural competence, they need to have a deep understanding of their own culture and also be willing to learn about the worldview and cultural practices of others. To have cultural competence, individuals also need to have a positive attitude towards different cultural differences and be ready to accept and respect search cultural differences. Cultural competence has become important in the Healthcare environment across the US because of the diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds of US citizens in the present. Healthcare practitioners, including NPs, are therefore likely to encounter patients from diverse backgrounds during their practice. In my professional practice, I will rely on cultural competence to be able to accommodate team members and patients from diverse backgrounds and relate with such individuals effectively. By relying on cultural competence, I will therefore be able to work in diverse teams while also attending to diverse patient populations.
Ethical Sensitivity
Ethical sensitivity can be defined as paying attention to ethical values that are involved in different conflict-laden situations and also having self-awareness of an individual’s responsibility and role in different ethical situations. Ethical sensitivity allows the identification of certain ethical challenges, including mental and emotional perceptions and also involves an awareness of the ethical outcomes of different decisions that are made by others (Esmaelzadeh et al., 2017). Through ethical sensitivity, an individual will be predisposed to make ethical decisions. In my professional practice, I will rely on ethical sensitivity to guide my practice decisions and to ensure that I follow the ethical principles in all my actions. I will also rely on ethical sensitivity to rate and evaluate the ethical performance of my team members and advise them accordingly.
Leadership
In nursing, leadership can be defined as the ability to influence, inspire, motivate other healthcare professionals and encourage them to work together in achieving their goals. Leaders in nursing influence health care organizations in every level of discipline and setting. Leadership is essential to nurses because nurse leaders can effectively serve as role models to different team members in Healthcare settings. Through leadership, nurses can therefore be able to enhance excellent interpersonal skills with their subordinates, be dedicated to excellence and create a culture of teamwork, collaboration and innovation. I will therefore rely on leadership skills to enhance different aspects of my professional practice. For instance, I will rely on my leadership skills to create a conducive environment for the delivery of healthcare services in my workplaces, such as promoting a culture of innovation and openness.
Lifelong Learning
Lifelong learning can be defined as continuing to obtain knowledge and gain more information throughout one’s career so as to completely fulfil the standards of care and the scope of practice in nursing. Lifelong learning includes learning from formal and informal education opportunities. I intend to incorporate the concepts of lifelong learning in my professional practice. This is because the nursing profession and the healthcare delivery industry are quite dynamic. Relying on lifelong learning will therefore assist me to always be up-to-date with the latest trends in healthcare delivery and evidence-based practices that can help improve my patient’s outcomes.
Impact of Graduate Education in Nursing on my Future Career Goals
Graduate education in nursing will have a significant impact on my future career goals in that it will deepen my industry knowledge, give me a competitive edge, allow me to access higher-paying jobs and help me to contribute to the advancement of the healthcare industry. Graduate education in nursing will significantly deepen my knowledge of the healthcare industry and help me to become an expert in psychiatric mental health, which will contribute significantly towards the delivery of quality services to patients. On the other hand, graduate education in nursing and, more specifically, psychiatric mental health will give me a competitive edge, especially when seeking to advance my career or looking for better prospects in jobs. Having a masters in psychiatric mental health will allow me to access higher-paying jobs and, most importantly, contribute towards the greater good of the nursing profession. By having a graduate education, I will therefore be well equipped to contribute towards innovation and stronger communities in the psychiatric mental health nurse practice field.
References
Esmaelzadeh, F., Abbaszadeh, A., Borhani, F., & Peyrovi, H. (2017). Ethical Sensitivity in Nursing Ethical Leadership: A Content Analysis of Iranian Nurses Experiences. The Open Nursing Journal, 11(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.2174/1874434601711010001