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Program Graduate Competencies Reflection

Jessica Elliott
Delaware Technical Community College
Nursing Capstone- NUR460-5W1
Dr. Sokola
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Since graduating with my associate degree of science in nursing from Delaware

Technical Community College in May of 2018, and earning my title as registered nurse shortly

after, I knew I would be returning to Delaware Technical Community College to complete my

bachelor’s degree of science in nursing. Over the past twenty-six months, I have taken numerous

courses that have helped to prepare me to become a better nurse, a baccalaureate prepared nurse.

Throughout these courses, I have completed clinical hours in different areas of nursing, used

research to adequately support theories, completed numerous case studies, and written a

countless number of papers using all of the new information that I learned. During this time, I

was able to meet the nine different program graduate competencies required by the BSN

program.

Capstone Goals

At the beginning of the Capstone course, I was able to assess my strengths, weaknesses,

opportunities, and threats in relation to the course and my nursing career as a whole. One of my

biggest strengths that I identified was honesty, while one of my biggest weaknesses was

procrastination. In addition to identifying these, I also made personal course goals in relation to

them. These goals included completing different aspects of my “workplace leadership project.”

While I did meet the goals that I set for myself in the beginning of the course, two of the four

were not completed in the projected amount of time, these two were completed a week after the

projected time frame. I completed these goals through clinical hours including implementation of

my fall risk project, research, and composing my final paper.

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Program Graduate Competencies

Since August of 2018, I have been taking courses towards my BSN degree. Over this

time, I have had the opportunity to complete all nine of the program graduate competencies at

various times in various ways.

PCG #1

PCG number one, “Integrate general education knowledge, skills, and aptitudes to

advance nursing education and growth in professional practice.” Over the course of the BSN

program, I have continuously used my prior knowledge to advance my nursing practice. By

already having the “basic” nursing knowledge, I was able to allow myself to see why things are

done a certain way and how they can be improved. When completing my clinical hours for my

workplace leadership project during the capstone course, I was able to build a fall risk safety

plan. This plan was built by looking at current guidelines and using my existing knowledge on

what causes and how to prevent falls. Since I already had a solid understanding of this issue, it

was easy to build a better plan after incorporating new research.

PCG #2

PCG number two, “Demonstrate leadership skills to promote patient safety and the

delivery of high-quality healthcare.” During the Leadership course, I was able to determine what

type of a leadership theory that I relate to best. Deming’s leadership theory focuses on staff

connection and relationship building in order to connect staff to leaders. (Finkelman, 2016) This

theory has helped me to connect with coworkers in order to be a better leader. When there is a

positive relationship between leaders and other coworkers, staff is more willing to ask questions

and be forthcoming when negative incidents occur. By learning this theory, I was able to focus
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on positive communication and relationships in order to better staff relations and patient care

while being a leader. I was able to demonstrate these leadership skills by implementing and

educating coworkers on my “Fall Risk Project” completed during the Capstone course.

PCG #3

PCG number three, “Apply skills of inquiry, analysis, and information literacy to support

evidence-based professional nursing practice.” During the Nursing Research course, I was able

to research violence in the field of nursing. For this course, I had to gather scholarly and

evidence-based resources in order to complete a paper on the chosen topic. During this

assignment, I learned that many nurses do not accurately report when violent incidents occur.

However, when more education was provided to nurses about workplace violence and when to

report, there was a decrease in violent events. This led to higher safety levels for both nurses and

patients. (Martinez, 2016)

PCG #4

PCG number four, “Integrate information management technology to improve patient

outcomes.” During the Nursing Informatics course, I was able to learn a lot about what

informatics is, how it works, and why it is important. In the Spring of 2020, I was able to

incorporate the information learned in this course into my real-life nursing practice. During this

time, our unit received new work phones. The old phones were incredibly basic, with ingoing

and outgoing phone calls only. However, the new phones were smart phones. These phones have

the function to access the EMR & MAR, scan medications, collect labs and other specimens,

page providers, and still have the function to place and receive phone calls. I was able to become
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a “superuser” on these new phones and work extra hours to educate staff on the new devices.

These new phones have made it easier and more efficient to provide patient care.

PGC #5

PGC number five, “Advocate for patients and the nursing profession with regard to

healthcare policy at the local, state, national, and global levels.” While I have always advocated

for my patients, during the Nursing Policy course I learned how to advocate for them in different

ways and on different levels. This course not only reminded me how bills were passed, but also

why it’s important to advocate for healthcare causes. During this course, I was able to research

bills in relation to Natural Disasters and Emergency Preparedness. I was able to find senate bill

S.4681- Ensuring Relief for Americans Impacted by Economic and Natural Disasters Act, 2020.

(Congress, 2020) If passed, this bill would provide 86.6 billion dollars to FEMA for the disaster

relief fund. This bill would impact those devastated by hurricanes, wildfires, and other disasters

that occurred in the year 2020.

PGC #6

PGC number six, “Direct patient-centered care through advocacy, interprofessional

communication, collaboration, and delegation.” As an oncology nurse, I take great pride in

caring for my patients while they are experiencing some of the worst moments of their life. Since

the beginning of the RN to BSN program, when creating my nursing philosophy, I noted the

importance of loving and caring for patients as if they were my own family member. While that

may not be much of an actual “philosophy,” that is what I’m driven by when caring for my

patients. An actual theory that is similar to this is Katie Eriksson's "Theory of Caritative Caring."

In Ms. Eriksson's theory, she states that, "... suffering that occurs as a result of a lack of caritative
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care is a violation of human dignity." (Petiprin, 2016) A few months ago, I cared for a young

patient with stage four cancer. This patient in particular had two young children at home and

they were supposed on vacation in Disney World with their children. Instead, the patient was

hospitalized and there was not much left to do in terms of treatment. The patient was now blood

transfusion dependent. The patient was extremely upset and anxious with everything going on,

especially knowing the probable outcome, and having two young children. After having many

conversations with the patient and family, they all agreed that going home with hospice was the

best option. However, the patient’s condition took a turn for the worst. Despite COVID-19

restrictions, we were able to get the patient situated and allow the patient’s children and close

family members to visit while the patient was still alert. The patient was able to go home with

hospice the next day and passed away the day after that. Looking back on the situation, my

nursing philosophy helped to guide me while caring for a patient with a difficult situation.

PGC #7

PGC number seven, “Integrate health promotion and disease prevention practices to

positively impact the delivery of healthcare to diverse populations.” During the Global Health

course, I learned why it’s important for me as a nurse in the United States to care about

healthcare throughout other parts of the world. When I was building my nursing foundation

through the ADN program, I had the opportunity to study abroad with the nursing department in

the Dominican Republic. During this trip, I was able to travel to different remote villages and

provide basic medical screenings to different families. Each day, we would set up a clinic in a

different village, typically in churches or community halls. We were able to provide blood

pressure screenings, treat scabies, complete dressing changes, and assess patients. These patients

would only see the doctor if we found something to be abnormal. Typically, these clinics only
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occur in remote villages once or twice a year. This is usually the only opportunity for these

people to see healthcare providers. Having this experience helps me to be grateful for the

healthcare advancements that we have in the U.S. and why it’s extremely important that we help

to care for others as well.

PGC #8

PGC number eight, “Practice professional nursing within an ethical framework.” In order

for positive patient outcomes, ethical nursing must be practiced. When units face low censuses,

nurses are typically pulled to the area that has a higher census. However, when a nurse gets

pulled to a floor she is not trained for, it is not ethical for her to treat the patient. As an oncology

nurse, I have special training in central lines and administering chemotherapy. However, I am

not trained in neurology. Recently, I was pulled to my hospital’s neurology floor. The off going

nurse explained how to conduct the NIH stroke scale and told me that I would be fine. However,

I knew that this was outside of my scope of practice. I told the charge nurse the situation, she

apologized for the other nurse imposing the task on me, and conducted the scores for the

appropriate patients.

PCG #9

PGC number nine, “Demonstrate lifelong learning that empowers personal and

professional growth.” Since graduating high school in 2015, I have been focused on my career as

a registered nurse. Before I even graduated from the ADN program, I was taking general BSN

courses in preparation for the BSN nursing program. Upon completion of the BSN program, I

will begin studying for my oncology certification for nurses, otherwise known as OCN. I

absolutely enjoy working with the oncology and hematology population. After my OCN, I hope
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to become a palliative care nurse practitioner and help patients manage their symptoms of cancer

and cancer treatments.

Conclusion

Since the start of the RN to BSN program, I have grown significantly as a student and as

a registered nurse. Throughout the courses in this program, a wide variety of new information

has been presented. I have been able to take this information and apply it directly to my nursing

practice. In addition, I have met all nine program graduate competencies. Overall, this program

has aided me in becoming a better and higher educated registered nurse, a baccalaureate prepared

nurse.
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References

Finkelman, A. (2016). Leadership and management for nurses: Core competencies for quality

care. Pearson.

Martinez, A. (2016, August 30). Managing workplace violence with evidence-based

interventions: A literature review. Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health

Services. 54(9) 31-36. doi: 10.3928/02793695-20160817-05

Leadership skills for nurses. Nursing times leadership supplement, 12. Petiprin, A. (2016). Katie

Eriksson- Nursing theorist. Retrieved from http://www.nursing-theory.org/nursing-

theorists/Katie-Eriksson.ph