Amy Johns NURS 324 January 27, 2013 Evaluating Your Own Current Practice 1.

How do you make sure you are delivering quality care? I make sure I deliver quality care by following policy and utilizing what I learned in school (aseptic technique, 7 rights of medication administration, etc.), managing my time well so I can accomplish all my tasks and asking questions of my coworkers (often). I had the opportunity to attend a Relationship-Based Care conference and I try to remember the things I learned as they relate to both patients and coworkers. I listen to the patients and let them have has much power and control over their care as they seem to need. I spend virtually every minute looking for opportunities to learn more about the conditions and surgeries that we work with on our floor and also nursing techniques, interventions and theories that apply as well. 2. How do you continue you education? I am working on my bachelors degree. I have planned on obtaining my orthopedic certification next fall (or as soon as possible after that) and have materials to study for it already. I attend staff meetings and Unit Action Council meetings because I find that I learn a lot about the functioning of the hospital and what drives management and their decisions. I ask questions of the more experienced nurses, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and doctors about not only orthopedic issues but medical issues as well. 3. How do you evaluate what you are doing in practice? I assess my patients to determine the effectiveness of my interventions (pain meds, timing and grouping of tasks to facilitate sleep/visitors, etc.) I observe more experienced nurses and compare my practice with things they do that I admire. When I am given an opportunity to learn about the things that govern and guide nursing practice, such as the opportunity to read the Code of Ethics later in this assignment, I embrace and incorporate them into my practice and review my actions with them in mind. I fully engage with the evaluation process with my shift coordinators, department manager, and resource coordinator. 4. What do you do to help others in your profession? (Do you work and play well with others?) I am committed to being a teacher and mentor to the students attending their clinicals on our floor. I make this a focus and priority in my practice. I am flexible with scheduling needs and do not participate in the negative dialogue that happens every time the schedule comes out. I try to be flexible and embrace change. I try to be a fun coworker and make our day-to-day work environment positive. I try to get to know my coworkers on a personal level so I can be supportive of them and build relationships with them as appropriate to work. I participate in recreational activities with staff that we do on the floor and sometimes outside the hospital.

5. Give examples of how you work with/as an interdisciplinary team. Our floor (orthopedics) works very closely with physical and occupational therapy. I work hard to facilitate their schedule and goals with the patients. I also appreciate and utilize our Vascular Access Specialty team and I try to be respectful of the time. I work side-by-side with hospital social workers and I try to communicate well with them for the benefit of the patient. I work with hospitalists (physician assistants, nurse practitioners, doctors) and try to communicate effectively with them. I am still learning how to accomplish this particular goal. We work very closely with the orthopedic surgeons and physicians and again, I try to be a good team member. 6. Review the code of ethics. How does your practice compare? Give some examples of how you practice ethically. I try to make the code of ethics the basis for all my actions in my practice and I genuinely try to the best of my ability to comply in situation. For example, as I stated above in question 1, I try truly try to guide them in decisions about their own care as stated in Provision 1, section 1.4, The Right to Self-Determination. (ANA, 2013). I also base my practice and decisions on section 2.1 Primacy of Patients Interest which states The nurses primary commitment is to the recipient of nursing and health care servicesthe patientwhether the recipient is an individual, family, group or a community. (ANA, 2013) I treat the patient and their family with the utmost respect and try to education and interact with them at a level that makes them comfortable. 7. Have you conducted research? Have you changed your practice because of some research? (if so what, and did you decide to change after reading the research or just change because you were told to?) Do you think your practice is based on research? I have not had the opportunity to participate in any research, to my knowledge, and I have not progressed that far in my education. I know that many of our nursing standards are based on evidence-based practice techniques that are based on research. Aseptic dressing changes, dealing with risk for infection w/ regard to broken Hemovacs, new products such as silver dressings and InterDry antimicrobial cloth for skin folds are things that have come up and are most obviously based on research. 8. Do you routinely refer patients to other resources? Are you cost effective in your care? I often refer patients to social work, the Financial and Meds Assistance Programs, the diabetic educator (or I make the physician/PA aware that they need to be referred), Alcoholics Anonymous/Al-Anon, and even Weight Watchers. I try to be cost effective and most often it is my own time that suffers. I often stay after, on my own time, to finish my charting because I have spent too much time with a patient or a student. I also come in hour early every day to read up on my assignment. I am working on time management very hard. 9. Are you a team player? Do you contribute to a healthy work environment? I believe that I am a very good team player and we do have a healthy work environment on my floor. I contribute to this by respecting the time, efforts, expertise, struggles, goals and needs of
2

others. I do not engage in negativity and if there is a problem, I try to solve it with the strategies we have in place to do so, such as attending Unit Action Council meetings and committing to a role of service in it. I work flexibly to accommodate the patient load we have. I try to be fun. I help the nurse assistants whenever I can. I try to lead by example and live my life in a healthy manner. References American Nurses Association, 2013. Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive Statements. Retrieved from http://www.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/EthicsStandards/CodeofEthicsforNur ses/Code-of-Ethics.pdf