Growing up as a young child, I spend most of my childhood at my grandparents’ house. Both my parents had traveled to another city due to their job demands and they did not want to inconvenience me by forcing me to accompany them. Both my grandparents were relatively old. One day, my grandmother fell sick and upon arriving at the hospital, she was confirmed dead. This event shocked and saddened everyone; my grandfather could not come to terms since after being diagnosed with Osteoporosis, grandma had become her personal caregiver and friend.
But after the burial, my aunt who was working as a nurse in another town had to relocate and be near grandpa. She demonstrated exemplary skills in providing necessary care to grandpa, always carrying herself with a lot of empathy, warmth, and compassion, listening and paying attention to grandpa’s requests. She would stay with grandpa until late, only when he had surrendered to his bed would aunt would come to our room. I began to admire my aunt’s work; her skills both intrinsic and extrinsic aroused my curiosity and just wished that one day I would be able to help other people like my aunt by being a nurse.
Summarizing the work of Alfaro-Lefevre (2010), the following nurse caring behaviors are the ones that I have identified to be part of me. First, I have the ability to help others, a skill learned by being part of my school first aid club; another skill is the ability to work closely with people, an aspect I have long developed working with various groups of people and from my mother through observing her work with the people.
Being compassionate with people in distress is another skill I possess whereby always I strive to be supportive, comforting, and providing the necessary help (cited in Wold, 2004). With a desire to train as a registered nurse, I aim to acquire more skills in patient behavior assessment and diagnosis with the ability to make decisions on the appropriate intervention methods to adopt. I perceive these to be critical in understanding variation in patients’ behaviors in different circumstances.
Empathetic skills have to do greatly with interpersonal relationships and communication. About the empathetic skills I possess, I am confident that as a person, I am an attentive listener especially to those people in problems (cited in Wold, 2004). This listening skill is a skill I greatly acquired from my aunt when she was taking care of grandpa. Secondly, I am always patient with almost everyone and believe this is a critical skill in the nursing field.
Honesty forms another element of my listening skill where talking truth to individuals is my policy (Alfaro-LeFevre, 2010). Considering honesty, in any circumstance, I respect another person’s views or way of thinking even when they are contrary to mine and this is a position that has characterized my life. Further, being sensitive to people’s needs is what I have cultivated within me where I believe as a nurse, holding a talk and receiving information from the patient should always be held with the utmost sensitivity and confidentiality.
Another empathetic skill that I possess is that of being non-judgmental (Alfaro-LeFevre, 2010) such that I always give room for free expression of views without making any judgment that might be subjective. Further, while listening to an individual, I always create a relaxed atmosphere with no criticisms or objection always remaining quietly and assuring the individual of the best.
However, with the ambition to train as a registered nurse, I am confident I will be able to acquire and develop more empathetic skills especially with regard to arrogant or mental disordered patients. Largely, the training I want to undertake will help in critical thinking with regard to empathetic communication and interaction (Alfaro-LeFevre, 2010).
In conclusion, nursing is a profession in which I believe I can use my intrinsic and extrinsic skills to contribute positively to the society. As a profession, there are a lot of demands, pressure, and setbacks, which I believe with adequate training, one is able to fully be equipped with the necessary critical thinking skills.
References
Alfaro-LeFevre, R. (2010). Critical Thinking Indicators (CTIs). Web.
Wold, G. (2004). Basic geriatric nursing. NY, Elsevier Health Sciences. Web.