Madison Stewart

3/20/2021

Final Reflection

Throughout the last 2.5 years, I have learned many skills that I will carry with me during

my nursing career. I began my journey in nursing in 2013 as a Certified Nurses Aide and

Registered Medication Tech. I enjoyed this experience, but knew I wanted to further my

education to better serve my patients. This previous time I spent administering medications

allowed me to have a basis of knowledge to build off of. I believe this gave me a jump start to

some of my courses. When working as a CNA in Assisted Living Facilities for over 5 years, I was

able to develop the basis of my nursing practice. Basic care is the foundation to which nursing is

built and I felt more confident providing competent care.

Throughout this program I have maintained status as a full-time employee as a

caregiver. I worked in many different settings such as a Medical Surgical unit, Emergency

Department, Private Duty care and Assisted Livings. By balancing a full-time work schedule and

school, I feel very accomplished and proud of my achievements. Although it has been one of

the most difficult years of my life, I look back with pride on this time.

During my clinical experience I was able to gain knowledge on time management, critical

thinking, and crucial prioritization. My favorite experience during my schooling involves my

immersion clinicals in the ICU at St. Francis Medical Center. This experience allowed me to be

independent and utilize my own nursing judgement. This was my top choice for immersion

placement because I wanted to challenge my critical thinking skills. I believe I overcame a lot of

self-doubt by being placed in this setting. In the beginning of my experience, I was timid and
didn’t have the confidence to speak up to a physician about a patient’s changing status.

However, by the mid to end immersion experience, I was confident in my assessment and

always remained open minded to learning when I was wrong. Throughout nursing school, I have

embraced every learning opportunity and always sought them out when appropriate. I learned

that the best way for me to retain information is to perform the skill hands on. The skills I was

most fearful of included anything ventilator related. By the end of my immersion experience, I

was confident in providing sterile trach care and dressing changes.

Some struggles I still find myself having includes time management. I believe that this

will be a skill that is life-long in completing. Though it will get better over time, there will always

be areas in the skill that can be improved. I noticed that I struggled with receiving new

admissions into the Intensive Care Unit. This requires a detailed assessment on the patient,

because you have no previous findings to compare your assessment to. For instance, when you

get a new admission that has left sided weakness, you have to assess this further to make sure

it is not a new finding for the patient. If you are providing a reassessment, you have the patients

history that may better help you understand your findings. Meaning that if you receive report

on a patient you had the previous day, you can better understand what is a new finding versus

an old finding. To strengthen this ability, I believe that I need to be exposed to it more. We only

had this opportunity a handful of times during my clinicals and although I did the majority of

the admission, I don’t know that I would be confident on my own.

The attitude that I will carry from my schooling with BSMCON into my career, include

eagerness to learn and empathy toward the patient and family. I have seen first-hand how

important it is to support the family that is with the patient. Many times the family that was
visiting the patient, were primary caregivers for them at home. These family members are

burnt out but are unable to stop caring for their loved ones because there is not always another

option. By being empathetic towards the patient and family, you are creating a trusting

environment so that you can learn from the family and they can learn from you. My eagerness

to learn is a trait that I would like to carry throughout my career. There is not a nurse or health

care provider that knows everything. Through active learning and participating, you can help

your coworkers on skills they may not be confident on, and vice versa.