Reflective Essay On Gaining Management Skills In Nursing Nursing Essay

Reflective Essay On Gaining Management Skills In Nursing Nursing Essay For the last five years, I have been working in the capacity of senior staff nurse in a rehabilitation unit for patients suffering from various forms of mental health conditions. When the ward manager offered me the opportunity to attend a course focusing on management skills, I had mixed feelings. I was pleased to realise that my manager had confidence in me to participate; However, I felt that this would be a challenge. At the same time, I was apprehensive; would I be able to fulfil her expectations? Especially as this course was designed for charge nurses who are expected to take a managerial role. Boud et al (1985) wrote about reflection being a form of response of the learner to experience. Johns (2000) stated through the conflict contradiction, the commitment to realise desirable work and understanding why things are as they are, the practitioner is more empowered to take more appropriate action in the future. From a reflective perspective of my practice, I undertook this study because I wanted to develop my role and felt it would be a good opportunity for me to apply the knowledge gained into my clinical practice. Effective resource management in the health care is paramount as without resources, there would be no health services. Various and appropriate resources are required to function and support the delivery of healthcare. In a practice setting, there is the human resources and non human resources. Human resources are staffà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s clinical knowledge, their skills and time. This refers to all categories of the workforce within the health care setting. It includes nursing, medical, management, domestic, Occupational therapist, administrators, patients, etc.. Therefore, this includes the skill mix of staff, recruitment and retention. Non human resources are buildings, medication, equipment methods and money. Methods as resources include clinical procedures, policies and training. For money, the resources include the cost of maintaining buildings, equipment, recruiting staff and their salaries and day today running of wards, etc. These resources should be utilized effectively in order to achieve targets at minimal financial cost, in the minimum amount of time and to a high standard. Learning about workforce planning gave me a greater understanding of assessing how many, and what type of staff required, identifying how these staffs will be supplied and deciding how a balance between demand and supply can be achieved. Workforce planning in the NHS is a challenging but an important process. More effective the workforce is ensuring better service for service users. During our study lessons, we have had plenty of opportunities to participate in group work. Within an establishment / ward situation it is important to complete the decision making process as a team. Members should realise if they are to discuss an issue, find possible answers to an issue or make recommendations in order for implementation. There must be an open forum for discussion. Given the above, there is less chance members will waste time dealing with issues beyond their responsibility. Commitment to the decision is important as this will increase the commitment to implementation of the decision. Some of the advantages of group decision making are it allows attempts to persuade and influence others, which could result in achieving high quality results. Because of participants wider knowledge, experience and data collection it could produce more possible solutions. People are more committed to implement what has been discussed and planned if they are included in the discussion a nd the decision making process. Sharing ideas, opinions and options increase the understanding of the situation and commitment to the decision. In group discussions there is opportunity to learn from the other members. The advantage is there can be a tendency for more dominate member to take over and influence others. However, a few of the participants may attempt to appear superior and dominate the group. Especially when there are strong personalities among the group members. Respect differences of opinion (Brounstein,2003; Payne,2001). Also, group members may become more interested in winning rather than investing the best possible option. I have experienced advantages as well as disadvantages during our group work sessions. It felt warm and satisfying to be a part of a group which ensures that everyone has an opportunity to be heard respecting everyoneà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s idea and values. It was tense and uncomfortable when there are dominators and aggressors; they were interrupti ng others wanting only their ideas to be heard. There are numerous methods by which a group can interact, these be introduced to prevent the discussions being dominated. I have also experienced differences in ideas, which led to feelings of a frustration and an unfriendly atmosphere. When you have a group that works well together as a team, negotiating will become more effective. We should make sure that our negotiations are done in such a way that it flows. The aim is to find an outcome thats acceptable to both parties. To achive this, we need skills such as: Listening, Questioning, reasoning and accepting. There are many ways to show that you are listening to someone. These involve two sets of skills. Non verbal, which relate to what you do and verbal relates to what you say. Non verbal methods include giving the person eye contact, nodding and not looking at your watch or yawning. Verbal ways include letting someone finish what they are saying, and thinking about what they have said rather than about what you are going to say next and responding to their comments. In any negotiation situation, it is important that you should feel comfortable about questioning anything you are unsure of or not happy with. There is no point in taking up a hard and fast position when you go into a negotiating situation. When this happens, both side retreat into their corners, and it becomes difficult to reason. You must be prepared to make some minor adjustments and compromises, as will your negotiating partner to reach a suitable outcome. At the end of a successful negotiation, you should both feel satisfied that you have reached an acceptable decision. You should also both have had an opportunity to express your views, ask questions and work out a reasonable agreement. If one party cannot accept the position, the negotiation should continue. I have also learnt and experienced how important it is to have bargaining skills when you are negotiating between two groups. During our negotiating exercise what we failed to do was to discuss between team members our strongest and weakest arguments and planning the sequences of our arguments. I believe the negotiation process can be summarised as a trading game. There is one way to play the game. That is to trade what we have with what we want. Through this study course, I was expected to learn various topics such as finance/workforce scheduling, report writing/negotiating skills, Recruitment and selection, interview skills, etc. Each lesson I attended was crammed with information. There were a number of skills I learned as part of my coursework, but in addition I learned a lot by going through the process. Reading relevant books and discussing these with my fellow classmates broaden my knowledge and interest in each topic. Looking at sample essays made me realise writing a report requires logical thinking and planning in order to organise oneà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s ideas carefully and express them accurately. This was a valuable exercise as we write reports daily in our work area. I could use my new found knowledge and skills at work. The day after I learned about negotiating skills, a situation arose at work where the new information I learned assisted me in tackling the situation confidently. The course also helped me to improve my supervision skills in leading the junior members of the team. Many of the lesions stressed group work. This allowed me to work in a team setting confidently and expand my team building skills. I highly value the skills and lessons I have learned from attending this course and would recommend the program to anyone who wants to expand their knowledge and skills. Boud D, Keogh R, Walker D (eds.) (1985) Reflection , turning experience into learning. London. Cogan Page. Brounstein,2003;payne,2001 Nursing Management and Leadership. Ann Marriner Tomer Johns C (2000) Becoming a reflective practitioner. Oxford: Blackwell

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The first people that came upon the Ice Man were Helmut and Erika Simon that also meant that they were the first two to compromise the integrity of the site. When they got there they moved a birch bark bundle out of the way when they got (Page 8). The next person that came to the site was Markus Pirpamer, the manger of the Weisskugel Lodge. The way he affected the site was when he moved the axe from the rock next to the body to another rock that was close by, in addition to that he did some other general scavenging (Page 13). Anton Koler also came in and looked around the site, he even moved the axe in order to take a better picture of it (17 Page). Markus was the first to remove an item from the site, the axe (Page 17). Hans Kammerlander disturbed the site by taking the stick off the ledge near the string and fur and using it to hack away the ice around the body (Page 23). There are many thing that the could have been done better as far as the excavating of the Ice Man, the biggest being how they did it. Because every showed up at first with the thought of it being a recant accidentally death of a climber, show because of that they took less care of the scene than they would have if the new it was an archeological find. Koler used a mini jackhammer to try and unbury the Ice Man and while doing so he struck the body itself. All the moving around of all the things makes it impossible to know exactly were everything was in relation to Otzi. I has prevented us from learning for sure f this was the original place of death, meaning has the ice melted and moved this whole group half way down the mountain. This is brought up by the fact that the body was found with the blue ski clip, obviously not something from the time of the Otzi. Another thing that went wrong with the excavation is the way he molded because of the way he was left in the ice over night, eve n though covered. When dealing with the Ice Man the archaeologists had to apply different methods at different parts in time. At the very beginning before any of the real excavating had been started there was some relative dating done with the axe, using knowledge of previously found axes of this same type or style to try and put the Otzi in a time period.

Raina Petkoff and her Cover-up Essay

Bernard Shaw’s works make us doubt principles and ideals, which we accepted without a question. The economic status of the Petkoff’s is one of wealth, and the fact that they are rich makes us think of a well-mannered and educated family, especially the young girl. The young girl should give us a sense of nobility and in fact she does in this story. The young girl in â€Å"Arms and the Man† gives us the impression that she is an ideal daughter, lover and citizen. But is she really? This girl tries to portray this stereotypical personality but proves not to be quite the noble girl she plays. At a certain point she sees herself in a very compromising position and is forced to change. As the play begins and we start getting to know this girl, Raina Petkoff we start noticing that she is a bit vain. The stage directions go as follows: â€Å"†¦On the balcony a young lady, intensely conscious of the romantic beauty of the night, and of the fact that her own youth and beauty are part of it†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (1561). This excerpt takes away some of the innocence she portrays in a subtle way. The next deception comes when the Swiss enters through the window; instead of screaming for help she decides to help him hide. She even lies to the Bulgarian officer who is looking for the Swiss, betraying her own country. Raina and the Swiss get to know each other a little, and with his experience he can see right through her. He instantly discovered the superficial coating over a very rough interior. The mother, Catherine, proves to be the same when she abandons her patriotism and loyalty and helps the Serb officer to hide and even escape the next morning. â€Å"Like father, like son† they say. But the biggest surprise comes when the Swiss or Serbian officer or Bluntschli blows Raina’s cover. Raina is outraged or pretends to be when Bluntschli throws the truth at her face. He calls her a liar and insists on it. She gets furious at first, but gives in when she realizes she’s got no way out. Her reaction is: â€Å"†¦ I! I!!!†¦How did you find me out?† (1591). And here she confesses that the â€Å"noble attitude† and the â€Å"thrilling voice† is just a cover-up. This is Raina’s turning point. We could say that at this point she went from being a girl to being a woman; at this point she matured. Another important fact to my case is the picture of herself she left in the jacket for Bluntschli to find, and the message it contained. â€Å"†¦My chocolate cream soldier†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (1603) is the name Raina gives Bluntschli in the dedication of the picture. This title given to Bluntschli suggests some type of affection that at this point is obvious but if the audience had learned of it as it happened chronologically it would be very shocking. After the turning point described above, Raina becomes a more outgoing and sincere person. She describes her own cover-up personality as a â€Å"noble attitude and thrilling voice† (1591) to Bluntschli. Raina also says Bluntschli is the first person that didn’t take her fake personality seriously. She confesses to the point that she mocks the people who believe her â€Å"noble self† by saying: â€Å"†¦ I did it when I was a child to my nurse. She believed in it. I do it before my parents. They believe in it. I do it before Sergius. He believes in it† (1591). That incident of calling her a liar made Raina mature. It was a turning point in the life of this character and in the plot of â€Å"Arms and the Man†. Bernard Shaw uses his comedies to criticize many ideals by mocking them. In the case of â€Å"Arms and the Man† he takes the nobility of a wealthy, respected family and destroys it by mocking many of its aspects. In this essay I analyze how Shaw takes the view of innocence of a young, noble, rich girl and changes it to make it crude reality, he makes the Petkoff’s look like common people with very little nobility. Works Cited Shaw, George Bernard. â€Å"Arms and the Man.† Literature: Reading Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and the Essay. Ed. Robert DiYanni. 5th Ed. New York: McGraw, 2002. 1561-1604.

Pediatric Growth And Development Assessment - 1174 Words

Pediatric Growth and Development Assessment Bethany Foust Olympic College Pediatric Growth and Development Assessment Client’s Initials: N.P. Date: 6/7/16 Age: 17 years old GD Category: Adolescence Psychosocial: (Erikson) Identity vs. Role Confusion. At this stage the client is expected to be trying on roles and establishing a sense of self while deciding what direction to take in life. An evaluation of self, friends and family is done, and changes are made as needed. This patient has achieved this stage, evidenced by a strong group of friends that he sees every morning before school to go fishing with. He also has decided to join the army reserves after graduation while he tries to gain employment at the shipyard. He demonstrated a stable and positive attitude by laughing, smiling, and making eye contact when talking with the people at the urgent care. Psychosexual: (Freud) Genital Stage. In this stage the client achieves physical growth and development of sexual characteristics. The focus is on sexual interest, expressed through relationships. N.P. is in this stage, as evidenced by him having a pregnant girlfriend who accompanied him to the appointment. Physical maturation is demonstrated through facial hair, deepening of the voice, and a height close to six feet. Developmental Tasks: (Havighurst) Tasks in this stage include achieving a gender role, gaining emotional independence, preparing for a career, preparing for marriage and family life, achievingShow MoreRelatedGeneral Movements Assessment ( An Annotated Bibliography1587 Words   |  7 PagesGeneral Movements Assessment (Summer 2014) o As an innovative teaching practice, the student completed an annotated bibliography regarding the General Movements Assessment (see Artifact XI.F.vi.1). 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