Combining Nurse Leader with Advocacy

The balance between personal weaknesses and strengths is an important phenomenon in nursing as a career. This essay is a personal discovery of the far I have come, where am at now and where am hoping to be in regard to the Nursing Manager Skills Inventory findings.

First, my personal and professional accountability is well informed with a big window for improvement. My adherence to ethical guidelines is a highlight in my practice and this fills me with enthusiasm and courage to do nursing. Ethical guidelines always unlock most of the dilemmas while practicing thus it helps me to maintain nursing standards. In addition, acquisition of membership in nursing organizations, for example American Organization of Nurse Executive among others, is a priority to me. I am also taking it as personal challenge to attain the maximum requirements for such registration if there is any.

Career planning

The high point for my career planning is the personal fulfillment that I have gotten in choosing to be a nurse. It is always my joy to attend to different patients and se them through their recovery process. The interesting part of it is the fulfillment that I get when I see a patient recovering from sickness as a result of a service I have rendered. In other words, my knowledge on the roles of a nurse is always on my finger tips and my endeavor to execute them brings about this satisfaction. The other interesting part is the joy that this brings to me in accomplishing my goal of offering timely and ethical medical support to patients that comes my way. These are my two strengths that have always brought satisfaction to me and have boosted my confidence as a practicing nurse. In addition, I will dedicate my effort to make sure that I equip myself with nursing competencies as a means of positioning myself for the future, because my future is in nursing practice.

However, my inability to balance between work and life is really a low point in career planning. While I am satisfied with the income and allowances from this practice, my social life has been adversely affected in that I cannot get enough time to hang out with friends as I used to before joining nursing. My off days and night offs cannot substitute the numerous night calls and duties that I always have in a month. This has caused an imbalance between work and social life. This is calling me to discover how this balance will be attained for healthy living.

Personal journey disciplines

Since I joined nursing, I have constantly desired to learn and grow in the knowledge of this profession. My ability to integrate the knowledge of nursing competencies, like the knowledge of the health care environment and professionalism, with the practice within healthcare facilities is a real strength for me. This has not only increased the desire in me to do research on the important disciplines of nursing but also has sharpened my skills and knowledge about this profession. Having received informal training in managing teams and the importance of team work, I am looking forward to form formidable teams whose objectives will be to provide quality healthcare to patients within and without healthcare facilities. This becomes my action point and I am taking it as a personal challenge to make sure that these skills are used to influence decisions at the top, same, and below my level of leadership.

Reflective practice reference behaviors/tenets

One of my core values is integrity and this forms the foundation of all that I do as a nurse. This is my driving force that makes me appreciate diversity in practice. In appreciating diversity, like gender, race and religion, I have realized that all people are equal regardless of their diversity and it is important for me render my services to these people without discrimination. Another tenet that I value in practice is autonomy of choice which always fills me with enthusiasm to work harder and smart. In search of autonomy, I am devoted to look for knowledge and wisdom from mentors and books as well as the media in order to be a relevant practicing nurse. Finally, I am personally committed to become an informed nurse at all cost. Attaining this status will be the reason for working as a proud nurse, being satisfied by the numerous professional achievements.

Advocating for change

There are five competencies that nurses are expected to acquire (AONE, 2005). My ability to work using a team will call for integration of the five competencies for a superb result. In other words, Communication and relationship plus professionalism plus knowledge of healthcare environment plus business skills will equal result oriented leadership. One of my personal goals is to provide quality nursing care to patients in all diversities. This goal will only be achieved through proper training that includes formal and informal education. This will be followed by continuous evaluation of the progress through the help of my mentor and the knowledge that I will have gained. This will be my implementation plan to achieve this goal.

References

American Organization of Nurse Executives. (2005). The AONE Nurse Executive Competencies. Chicago: The American Organization of Nurse Executives.