Reflective Journal - Week 16

1. What did you learn this semester.

I learned about the following: leadership, hiring, firing, working with a team, communication, performance appraisals, problem employees, managing conflict, ethical responsibilities of nurses, managing healthcare resources, educators, the future of nursing, career development, staffing, managing change, strategic planning, health policy, conflict resolution, motivation, risk management, and legal responsibilities. 

I think the main things that stood out to me were problem employees, conflict resolution, managing change, and motivation. Dealing with any type of conflict is hard for me. I just try to ignore it, but this class made me realize that it is important to resolve conflicts in a professional way and strategies on how to do that. I think managing change really stood out to me because of the video. The video was kind of weird, but it had good messages. I loved all the quotes at the end. I also really like how we talked about motivation. When I started working, I thought it was cool how they would have snacks for us, spotlights, and other fun things. Now I realize that it is all strategy to keep up the work morale and help give un encouragement and motivation haha. 

I also learned a lot about the importance of a professional portfolio. We did a portfolio in one of my last ASN courses, but the professional portfolio that we did this semester added on to it a lot. I did rally bad on my assignments, but it was great feedback, so I was able to fix everything, and now I feel more confident in my portfolio. I’m excited to continue to add to it. 

2. Discuss your feelings/experiences from the team activities this semester. Did it change your opinion on the subjects? If so, how? If not, why?

To be honest, working with a team is really hard, but it also has it’s benefits! It is hard to coordinate during the assignment. Sometimes, group members understand an assignment differently, and that can make it confusing too (when you don’t see eye-to-eye on how something is supposed to be).The benefits however make up for the hard parts of teamwork. For example, sometimes it creates less work since many people are contributing (many hands make light work). I like that part about it. I really enjoyed getting to know my team during the team building activity and throughout this semester. We were a good team!

I learned a lot from their replies. Seeing how they responded to discussions and what they did on the assignments helped encourage me to be better and produce better work. They are all so smart, and I was happy to be able to learn from them. Something I wont get over though is how they all thought we should save people who have done bad things instead of a crippled child. That made me sick! I wonder if I wasn’t the only one to disagree, but they stayed quiet like I did. I have learned I need to be better about speaking up and standing up for what I think is right. I can be really shy is group settings! Anyway, some things they changed my opinion about, but other things, I just received more ideas to support my opinion.

3. How you will utilize the information learned this semester in your nursing practice.

I think my main takeaway is that leadership and career development are important. I have always been scared to be in a leadership position. I think that might just be because I am still so new. I am going to try to put myself in leadership positions one day when I feel more confident and have some more experience. I also have always been against going back to school after I finish my BSN, because I am just so burnt out with school. However, this class helped me realize that there are other ways to advance my career, other than furthering my degree. I am going to do those alternative things like attending conferences and being apart of organizations, then maybe in the meantime I will feel ready to go back to school to further my degree!

4. Your personal feelings about the material covered in this course.

I think this was a great course, and the material covered was beneficial! However, this class had more assignments.work load than any of my other BSN classes. I think an adjustment should be made to make this class a little less heavy. None-the-less I am very thankful for my take-aways and things learned. Thanks for a great semester!