Reflective Journal Week 12 - Nursing Across the Ages

 What I learned about the time period being studied

From my literature search, I read This article that talks about the barriers and challenges nurses in the 21st century. Specifically, education. The article states that the way nursing school was taught in the 20th century is not adequate to prepare 21st century nurses for nursing work. Changes need to be made to help nurses be prepared for the specific changes that have happened, and are happening in healthcare. One example of change that the article brought up is that we have an increasingly aging population. Nursing students need more education on how to care for this type of patient population.  It argues that nurses need to have good critical thinking and processing skills now more than ever with all the complexities in healthcare that are accruing. The members in my discussion group taught me about the importance of assessing out patients as a “whole human being” and not just focusing on their physical health, but other aspects of their health and well being. Also, I learned about how there are an increasing number of baby boomers that are needing nursing care as they begin to enter their geriatric years. It was predicted that during our time of nursing, there would be an increasing need for nurses due to the baby boomer population needing nursing care. 

How I will utilize this information learned into my nursing practice

From what I learned in my article, it makes me want to learn more about the geriatric population. One of the distinguishing characteristics of nursing in our time period compared to the past is our patient population’s advanced age. We have had higher life expectancies today than every before. This makes nursing more complex and requires today’s nurses to be experienced and good critical thinkers. Knowing the needs of the geriatric population will help me be a more useful, and effective nurse.

My personal feelings about the time period covered

We live in an interesting time period. I think it is great that our patient populations are older, because that means people are living longer! I think the quickly advancing technology requires nurses to be life long learners. This also makes us need to have the quality of being adaptable and flexible. I am proud to be a nurse during this time, and I can’t wait to see all the advances that will be made throughout my lifetime!