Nursing Scholarship Essay

“Do small things with great love.” I find no better words to live by than this simple phrase spoken by Mother Teresa. As a profession, nursing must strive to uphold Mother Teresa’s call to spread love and compassion through all that we do. I believe that nursing is one of the most noble and gratifying professions. As nurses, we are called upon to complete a great deal of tasks, from inserting catheters to administering medications. However, though these are critical skills in caring for our patients, I believe that nursing is made truly unique by the compassion and the love that is behind every action. Whether it be comforting a parent who has just lost their child, offering a smile to an anxious patient, or staying hours past the end of a

Specifically, I have gained experience related to quality of practice, education, professional practice evaluation, collegiality, collaboration, ethics, and research through various assignments, simulations, lectures, and clinical experiences. To begin with, I gained a grasp of the importance of quality nursing practice through the clinical journals that I completed in acute care and the wound clinic. These three journals covered topics such as wound healing through protein supplementation, prophylaxis of venous thromboembolisms, and the usage of silver based dressings to treat chronic venous ulcers. Through witnessing these topics in practice, researching them, and analyzing their use in the clinical setting, I was able to gain information to monitor the effectiveness and safety of nursing practice. This will allow me create evidence-based recommendations for nursing related to topics such as wound healing, nutrition, and VTE care. These journals also allowed me to grow as a researcher while seeking optimal evidence for these

Not only was I able to understand the importance of education as a nursing student through my lectures, simulations, and clinical experiences, but I also gained further insight into the importance of sharing our education and knowledge with our patients. One of the most noteworthy examples of this took place during my acute care clinical rotation at St. Mary’s of Michigan. There I encountered a patient who was diagnosed with COPD and was receiving numerous medications for this as well as her other comorbidities. After conversing with the client for a few minutes, it became apparent that she had not been educated on her condition, nor had she received information regarding her medications. She was unaware that she had been prescribed an antibiotic to fight off an infection, and had only recently realized what chronic obstructive pulmonary disease actually was. She told me that she had performed her own online research to understand COPD, as her previous healthcare providers had simply told her that it was something that she had gotten from smoking, and had given no further information. After learning this, my clinical instructor and I made it a point to print and highlight important information for this patient regarding her medications and side effects in order for her to be more knowledgeable about her condition and feel more comfortable with her diagnosis. To provide this