Part One: Reflection on personal and professional life at the university.
The role of learning and its importance to personal growth and development
While it has been true that learning for nursing faculty is complex and complicated, it goes along with individual effort of pursuing further learning through master’s or doctoral program. It demands constant inquisitiveness and eagerness about the nursing role and all its dimensions in order to cope up with the current learning throughout the nursing career. Therefore, the pursuit of lifelong learning is indispensable provided that our education programs are to be of its highest quality.
What have been learned at the university are generally theoretical matters. With this, many nursing individuals come to their positions knowing little about what to do. Fortunately, with the aid of preceptors, they are then guided to matters not regularly discussed at school. Nurses for several years may even know only those approaches to teaching or evaluating learning that they have experienced themselves as students.
The important thing to raise here is the generation of learning from older and experienced faculty passing it to the next potential nurses. This is to preserve and enhance the handing over of nursing role for the betterment of the service along with individual’s growth and development.
I had only completed an associate degree in the field of nursing. Nevertheless, I aspire for the completion of the nursing course for personal and professional growth and development. Along with my desire for growth and advancement is my inclination to rendering proper and up-to-date service and care to patients.
Part Two: Evaluation and recommendation of the growth and development gained at the university
Theoretical learning from the university builds up a strong and solid foundation to my career. Even though most of the practical things are learned on the job experience, university teaching is still an undeniable factor for my early course development. It greatly helps construct solid base prior to my pursuance of the profession.
There have been courses that significantly helped my personal and work life. The university offers general and core courses that in particular directly facilitate my personal growth. The core courses were Nursing 467 that involves nursing management of families and Nursing 486 involving nursing leadership and management. On one hand, general education courses were Psy 428 or Organizational Psychology and Physiology 430 which is Team dynamics for managers. These general education courses helped a lot for my improvement much more that I am destined in a Psychiatric hospital. Nursing leadership and management course directed me to the proper principles on controlling a situation and appropriate actions to be taken.
Recommendations:
In the search for the proper facilitation enhancement of lifelong development, National League for Nursing (NLN) offers a wide range of opportunities. These are the following:
- Yearly Faculty Development Institute
This program allows nurse educators to immerse themselves in discussions of real-world challenges to implementing the educator role.
- Annual Educational Summit
Faculties are challenged to think in new ways, integrate research findings into their approaches to teaching and evaluating students, and consider different curriculum models.
- NLN Press publication
This publication addresses innovative approaches to teaching, learning, and evaluation; implementation of the faculty role; and evidence-based teaching.
- Presentation of NLN’s official journal
This official journal addresses similar topics and presents opportunities for faculty to debate, argue, or struggle with real-world issues that are student-related or that arise from attempting to implement a complex, demanding role.
- Local or regional workshops
These workshops provide opportunities for faculty to dialogue with expert educators and have a “hands on” experience in solving a problem or creating new approaches to teaching.
- Programs sponsored by NLN’s Constituent Leagues
- Research grants
This program support studies related to effective approaches to facilitating learning, developing innovative curricula, enhancing students’ total development, etc.
- Online courses
Such courses allow individuals to study topics at their own leisure and without having to admit publicly that they do not know as much about a topic (e.g. test construction) as colleagues think they should know.
- Annual Nursing Education Research Institute
This foundation assists nurse educators to develop studies that address the NLN’s Priorities for Research in Nursing Education and develop the science of nursing education.
- Opportunities for colleague networking
A chance to network with colleagues who share similar interests, either through listservs, chat rooms, or contacts made through a nurse educator database, as well as at conferences.
These programs and opportunities offered by this association definitely and without a doubt are for the enhancement and improvement of learning for future students. However, this will require good instructors or nurse educators to properly impart and achieve this objective. They play a critical role in shaping the nursing profession. This has been due to the fact that nurses must maintain competence through participation in ongoing professional education in order to uphold and upgrade knowledge and skills relevant to clinical practice, management, education or research setting.
Part Three: The impact of completing the university bachelor’s program for the current and future professional goals.
The completion of my program of study in my associate degree just made me crave and thirst for more knowledge. A further learning is what I have been longing for lately in my career as a Registered Nurse. It would be a lifetime achievement making it up to the bachelor’s degree. I have been serving already sooner than having it attached with my accomplishments.
Nursing career is one of those professions that need constant improvement in coping up with the increasing demands for rendering care to all people. This would just mean that all this lifelong learning is a way in promoting quality nursing care.
This continuing education helps a lot in accomplishing my responsibility as a nurse to provide high quality and safe nursing care to the community that needs it. Having reached my associate degree made me think of the way up with the endeavor of maintaining competence using lifelong learning opportunities for the development of my skills and knowledge. As provided by the NLN, these lifelong learning opportunities can be gained through the workplace, educational services, even at home using the internet and other distance education methods.
Future Plans
After finishing my bachelor’s degree, I will be serving for the next five years before retiring. Nursing Management will be the first program that I am interested for the enhancement of my knowledge in legal and ethical aspects of nursing management. Included in the management program are the practical matters of personnel management, budget preparation, product selection, and quality control. Additionally, it will build up my leadership skills, clinical management methods, systems management, quality assurance, provision of healthcare, and strategic planning. This will be an excellent approach in route to working with other staffs and managers in the hospital.
Furthermore, attending to several conferences or workshops would be also of great help. A better example would be attending nursing association such as the National League for Nursing (NLN). The layout provided by the NLN’s opportunity gives an exact implication on how to facilitate lifelong learning. The prospects have already been mentioned above.
If there would be any other additional degree for me to pursue, that would be Education. I always wanted to impart and pass on everything that I have learned throughout my nursing career. At least I would be able to guide and instruct students for their studies. For the simple fact that things learned by students do not only come from the classroom or by itself alone but with the help of mentors and preceptors along the learning process.
As quoted in the above-mentioned statements, nurse educators play a significant role in influencing the nursing profession. I would be honored helping students in preparing for their roles that they will assume upon completion of their study. Moreover, as in any other profession, educators set the tone for the future. What will the future brings will depend on the hands of these educators in instilling appropriately what students needed to know. Accounting to my experiences and several classes for my advancement, I believe it wouldn’t be impossible to achieve such things. As a final point, it would be the greatest feeling of contentment I would ever felt having to see students succeed knowing that I had once helped them. I can then reminisce with my heads up and proud of what I have accomplished throughout my entire profession.
Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com
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