NU 500 W3 D1 Initial Post

What is personal knowing; how does your personal knowing affect your personal professional development?

According to Chinn and Kramer (2018), personal knowing refers to knowing oneself. The outline of knowing the Self is tough to comprehend, because knowing the self is hard to describe or put into words. We can understand our Self by knowing our personality. To know exactly who we are as a person, we must embrace who we are and pay attention to others’ cues to the Self that we are. As we fully begin to understand our Self, we will be able to appreciate our potential for who we might become in the future as we continue to grow and develop as a person (Chinn and Kramer, 2018).

My personal knowing affects my personal professional development in a positive way. I know that I like to continually be learning, I know I can receive positive and negative feedback, as long as it is done in a professional manner. I know that when I feel respected and appreciated, I am able to perform much more effectively.

Identify and discuss 2 professional strengths and 2 weaknesses that you have?

My 2 professional strengths include being able to manage my time appropriately. I like to write myself a list of things that need to be completed on my shift, including specific assessments or dressing changes. Another strength I have is being able to communicate effectively when speaking to patients and their families. Interpersonal communication is very important to me because when patients are treated with respect and with dignity, their hospital experience is a positive one, and increases their compliance due to feeling their voice is being heard.

My 2 professional weaknesses include frustration with unexpected changes. I work at a LTC, and procedures are changed constantly. By the time I am getting used to one procedure, it is already being changed, this is due to poor management. Aside from my frustration with unexpected changes, one of my weaknesses is not being able to say, “no” when I must. As a pool nurse at this specific LTC facility, I am unable to get mandated to stay an extra shift if someone calls off; but because I don’t want a full-time nurse to get mandated and feel burned out, I pick up the extra shift fully knowing I will be hating myself for doing so.

How can you apply nursing theory to address your weaknesses and further develop your strengths?

Hildegard Peplau’s Interaction Theory would help me the most in improving relationships when I feel frustration with unexpected changes, especially when those changes are not communicated with all the nursing staff, in this case the Pool Nurses. Peplau’s stage 2 talks about physical care, emotional support and education (McEwin and Wills, 2019). Granted, her theory focuses on patient nurse relationship, but I believe it can be applied to all relationships. Being able to say “no” would mean I am taking care of my physical self by avoiding feeling regret or tiredness when volunteering to work an extra shift.

Reference

Chinn, P. L., & Kramer, M. K. (2018). Knowledge development in nursing: Theory and process. (1oth ed.). Elsevier.

McEwen, M., & Wills, E. M. (2019). Theoretical basis for nursing (5th ed.). Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer Health.