Self Awareness In Nursing

Self-awareness

I was extremely nervous about coming onto med-surg unit today because I feel that I have had much that I need to review, but not a whole lot of time to review materials. I was also nervous because I know that many of my fellow nursing students have a lot more experience than I do in health care, so I felt that the nurse I would shadow today may not want someone with such little experience as me. As I was sitting at our meeting spot at 6:40 this morning, I realized that my mentality was already a barrier that I needed to overcome before I stepped out on the unit today. I needed to remind myself that this was a different unit than my mental health rotation. That the nurses on this floor were not like the nurses over on the mental

My nurse would ask me if I was comfortable in trying to go handle it on my own and I said that I would be happy to go try to resolve the issue on my own. Each time I walked in and greeted the patient with a friendly smile while first asking him how he was doing and then asking what I could do for him. Each time he would say that he was doing okay and then he would ask if the nurse was around to help him fix his problem. I explained that the nurse was a little busy today, but I could try and help him with whatever problem he had. He then responded that he felt comfortable talking to the nurse about the issue. I told him that I would go get the nurse, but I tried asking him what his concern was again so that I could tell my nurse when I went to grab her. The patient told me that he really would like to discuss it with the nurse. Throughout the day, it seemed that the patient did not like me enough or was comfortable enough with me to take care of him. I later learned that the patient has trust issues with hospital staff, but he had this nurse many times. He trusts her and since he has only met me today, I can understand why he would be apprehensive about me. In addition, I am a nursing student still learning my practice, so I understand why he would be hesitant about my ability to take care of him. However, I feel that throughout the course of the day this patient and I gained some common ground. He became comfortable

She had a surgery to fix her enlarged aorta which was causing her much difficulties, but she was being discharged to a rehabilitation center to help her further heal. As my nurse and I were taking care of her today, I noticed that the patient seemed incoherent and confused at times. As I was trying to use critical thinking skills to figure out what was wrong, I noticed that my mindset was still thinking more in a setting of that of a mental health unit. I realized that I was trying to assess her more if she was a patient on the mental health unit because that was my last clinical rotation, but that is not the case for this patient, or really any patient on this floor. The procedures and surgeries the patients have on this unit takes a lot of energy out of a patient and can leave them exhausted. The patient may need extra time to rest or catch her breath from moving from position to position or from place to place, especially because she had heart surgery. In the future, I need to continue to be aware of how draining these procedures can be on a patient and acknowledge that they could benefit from more rest and