Reflective Journal - Week 10

I had not considered the complexities of scheduling before this unit. As units get larger the difficulty of scheduling increases as well. It is vital to have staff aware of their scheduled work times and present for them, these RN's are depended upon to support and maintain people’s lives. If scheduling is not done well or if RN's are not properly informed or do not understand their schedules people may suffer physically because of it. Charge nurses and managers carry a heavy load in creating schedules and ensuring staff is aware of their responsibilities. I now more fully understand the stresses on these managers who have to juggle people’s personal schedules, being short on staff, and whatever other problems present themselves. At first glance it seems that scheduling should be a quick and simple process, but in reality it is a difficult and very important job of the charge nurse/managers. I will be sure to be mindful of this burden when receiving future schedules on my unit, I also feel that I learned a lot that I can use when I reach a position that will require me to be creating staff schedules.

This week we also looked at nursing career development. This really gave me an opportunity to reexamine my future career goals and reassess my current trajectory and plans. Despite a current successful home ran business, my ultimate career goal is still to own my own family practice as a family nurse practitioner. Having my Bachelor’s degree completed this semester I feel that I am on my way. I hope to get a job at an ER department soon and begin acquiring valuable knowledge, expertise, and experience, as I move forward towards my goal. As soon as I am able to, I hope to return to school to become a nurse practitioner. I really enjoyed the discussion on the use of mentor as we chase our career goals. I myself have several individuals I receive advice from, but I had never considered them my mentors. With this realization I plan to further press these friends for all the advice and career help I can acquire. I also love that Sean talks about passing it forward, once I have reached career goals (and along the way!) I hope to assist everyone I can in bettering their lives and building their careers along the way.