This paper aims to discuss my personal experience in nursing practice, including the reflection on the goals which were established for the week. Further, the integration of staffing and scheduling concepts from Week 8 into the training will be observed. Additionally, the area of greatest learning will be considered.
Identifying the Goals
For Week 8, I identified the following goals: (1) to use my leadership skills paired with my knowledge of nursing in order to advance the quality of caregiving and the organization of practice; (2) to include the theoretical knowledge about staffing and scheduling into the practical sphere; (3) to achieve a higher level of purposefulness, intentionality, and moral ecology in the workplace. First two objectives are significantly connected since they both belong to the sphere of managerial skills. However, the first goal represents the general direction, while the second goal is specific. The third objective deals with the ethical and moral constituent of the nursing profession.
Reflection on the Goals
During the week, the goals that I identified for myself were the primary focusing points in practice. In general, the active application of leadership skills gave significantly positive results because the routine duties of the unit were performed with a higher level of productivity. In particular, staffing and scheduling skills that I intended to implement in my practice were the primary reason for the increase in productivity. This aspect will be discussed in greater detail in the next section. Concerning the third identified objective, I can observe that it caused a vast advancement in the quality of practice. Though it was not done with ease, the amount of potential workplace amelioration is immense when the ideas of purposefulness and intentionality are applied.
Concepts of Staffing and Scheduling
I chose the concepts of staffing and scheduling from Week 8 to integrate them into practice. Primarily, they were selected because it was an excellent opportunity to develop and advance leadership skills. In general, I can observe that it was a highly beneficial idea. I attempted to fit into the post of the staffing coordinator and to develop a centralized scheduling plan. I chose to use the pattern scheduling, setting the number of shifts of different types with the help of computer equipment. My actions gave positive results since the process of staffing was vastly facilitated by the use of an online scheduling tool.
Area of Greatest Learning
Despite the undeniable importance of my scheduling experience, I should observe that the area of greatest learning for this week was the implementation of purposefulness and intentionality principles into practice. In my opinion, I succeeded in scheduling and staffing this week because I decided that all my actions should have a distinct purpose (Hinds et al., 2015). Also, the ethical attitude to caregiving also ameliorated my practicum experience because it is essential to provide patients with the moral support (Weiss, Malone, Merighi, & Benner, 2016). In conclusion, I can observe that I accomplished all the identified objectives successfully.
References
Hinds, P. S., Britton, D. R., Coleman, L., Engh, E., Humbel, T. K., Keller, S.,… Walczak, D. (2015). Creating a career legacy map to help assure meaningful work in nursing. Nursing Outlook, 63(2), 211-218.
Weiss, S. M., Malone, R. E., Merighi, J. R., & Benner, P. (2016). Economism, efficiency, and the moral ecology of good nursing practice. Canadian Journal of Nursing Research Archive, 34(2), 96-119.