Introduction and purpose
Learning is an active process that requires careful, insightful and guided quest for practical and theoretical application especially when undertaking the graduate program. Activities that are familiar and designed to provoke creativity among students generate greater sense of identity and facilitate personality and cognitive progress. Developing an understanding on career and transformative roles for undergraduate students in nursing is critical and as such, calls for the creation of systems that are relevant to the goals being sought (Basavanthappa, 2007). Several questions have been raised regarding how graduate students can develop skills in order to care for acutely-ill patients and improve provision of overall patient care. A number of questions emerge at this point. For instance, what boundaries of knowledge exist for students in nursing field? What are some of the evolving roles in the transformation of nursing profession? What are some of the transformational roles that should be followed when people make judgment about communication and overall patient care? In that regard, this paper interviews an Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner (NP). It also explores nursing in terms of its roles, demanding tasks, and challenges that professionals and graduate students may anticipate in future.
Questions used during the interview
- How did you end up choosing a career in nursing? What motivated you and how was your graduate program? As a nursing professional, what tasks demand most of your time in the course of working?
- How was your education program crucial to this profession? How does it relate to your present occupation and organizational productivity?
- Having specialized on scholarly Geriatric Nursing and worked as a specialist in the same field, what do you think are the future challenges of transforming the roles of nursing practice? How can they be addressed? How would you advise undergraduate students pursuing your career?
Overview of career
I am an American of Italian descent. I was born in 1950. Following my passion in healthcare, I sought to pursue a career in nursing whereby I got a diploma in 1970 from New York Medical College and later and a bachelor’s degree at St. John’s University. I realized that a master’s degree would be an entry ticket for me in this field. At this point, I started appreciating that my true opportunity to become an Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioners (NP) was to enroll in a Doctoral program at the Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing in New York University. This provided me with the deepest knowledge and consensus based competencies in the field of nursing. In 1980, I was invited by the National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties (NONPF) in the expert panel in order to work as a co-facilitator..
Present position
Presently, my roles at the NONPF include providing education on acute nurse practitioner and practice, gerontology and adult care practice as well as educating and providing certification for nurse practitioners. When I look back at my initial professional goals in college, I am proud of myself at how far I have come. Most importantly, I have remained focused on my future career aspirations. By reviewing the growing inpatient population and other issues in the nursing field, I see a gap that requires passion, commitment and sacrifice.
Pearls of wisdom
Since my undergraduate studies, I have focused on building basic knowledge on how to effectively assessing and manage acutely ill patients. My aim was to actually ensure that this is done perfectly within a hospital setting for inpatients as well as in hospital-to-clinic settings by getting involved in related areas and research work. I also made important contacts with NP professionals, undergraduate nursing students, and patients in clinics, sub acute care wards, specialty labs and intensive care units. I came to realize that through this interaction, AGACNPs can offer effective patient management besides diagnosing and providing medical care (Barker & DeNisco, 2013).
Besides, my understanding of leadership is based on the following aspects. First, leadership is the ability to identify missions, provide transformational changes in an organization and guide others towards it. Quite often, the mission of an organization is visionary and followers find it difficult to associate with it (McEwen & Wills, 2014). My role in NONPF has been to initiate key operational changes and advancing this vision of helping followers realize the advantages of pursuing it.
Leadership entails helping others to proactively identify issues and resolving them for faster progress (Butts & Rich, 2011). Every action in nursing involves resolving issues and seeking solutions. As one of the leaders in my undergraduate programs, my role was to create the right channels for resolving issues and conflicts. I accomplished this role by ensuring that all stakeholders were involved in looking for solutions to different issues. This helped to nurture my conflict resolution skills by subjecting them to additional training.
Lastly, education plays a key role in nurturing and advancing a positive culture in teams and organizations (Janicijevic, 2010). This helps to define belief systems and values that students use to determine their cooperation with leaders and fellow workers. A good learner in a graduate program should be able to develop important cultural aspects such as continued improvement and embracing change (McEwen & Wills, 2014).
Conclusion
To sum up, graduate education plays a critical role in enhancing an individual’s ability to learn and apply knowledge and skills in healthcare provision. As indicated in the interview, taking a PhD in at the Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing presented the interviewee with one of the best opportunities to achieve the desired goal. Education provides a platform where an individual meets the right role models, and an ideal learning environment for outreach. From the interviewee’s experience, it is evident that the purpose of a goal in education is to propel an individual to meet hidden expectations.
References
Barker, A. M., & DeNisco, S. M. (2013). Advanced practice nursing: Evolving roles for the transformation of the profession (2nd ed.). Boston: Jones & Bartlett.
Basavanthappa, B. T. (2007). Nursing theories. New Delhi: Jaypee Brothers medical Publishers Ltd.
Butts, J. & Rich, K. (2011). Philosophies and theories for advanced nursing practice. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Learning.
Janicijevic, N (2010). Business processes in organizational diagnosis. Management: Journal of Contemporary Management Issues. 15(2), 85-106.
McEwen, M. & Wills, M.E. (2014). Theoretical Basis for Nursing. New York: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.