Justification for chosen e-portfolio structure

This document discusses the justification for choosing the assessment portfolio structure for an e-portfolio. It explains the purpose of the assessment portfolio, its audience, and the inclusion of reflective writing pieces. It also explores the importance of quality evidence and evidence collecting practices. The document further reflects on three professional standards - collaborative working, good communication, and professionalism - and provides reflective writing pieces linked to these standards.

3.1 Justification for chosen e-portfolio structure
I have chosen Assessment Portfolio because it is reflective in nature.The basic function
of the assessment portfolio is to record what I have learnt. What will be included in the
portfolio is determined. My reflective comments will highlight the scope to which I
believe the portfolio entries show their competence of the curriculum goals. Like in the
nursing philosophy section, I identified the scope to which I believe that entry
demonstrated my competence of the curriculum goals that are professional standards.
The assessment portfolio included narrative as well as descriptive writing based on the
needs of the curriculum. The fundamental goal of using the assessment portfolio is to
record what I learnt on particular curriculum outcomes. As such, the items in the
portfolio must be designed to elicit the knowledge and skill specified in the outcomes. It
is the assessment tasks that bring the curriculum outcomes to life; only by specifying
precisely what I must do and how well I must do it do these statements of learning have
meaning.
Assessment portfolios is utilized to shoe my competence in various curricular area. It
spanned for the period of an entire year and dedicated to my professional competence
and not particular subjects.
An assessment portfolio has many possible audience based on its particular purpose.
One audience will be my professor. On the other hand, the audience may be the school
district or even the state, pursuing record of my learning, and allowing me to higher
studies or receive my post graduate degree. Secondary audience would be myself as I
have provided the evidence of significant learning.

2. Reflect on what constitutes quality evidence and your evidence collecting practices.
Quality evidence pieces or artefacts which are kept over the professional period by the
professional. Quality evidence included a reflective biographical piece which focused on
my origins, how I found his calling particularly mental health nursing. Several personal
nursing philosophies are also presented namely, communication skills, critical analysis
skill and leadership skills. These philosophies are linked with professional nursing
standards. I worked hard on developing communication skills which is professional
achievement and also a significant standard in nursing professions which must be
maintained by them. I was able to determine these professional standards which were
significant for my professional development. The standard of collaborative working is
emphasized in the literature as well as nursing practice numerous times. My supervisor
has taught me to be mindful of team work and be a team player so that I can ensure
patient safety and avoid disputes at my professional front. Likewise, standard of
communication skills are also significant to ensure effective service provision without
any obstruction. I tried to identify the strength and weakness of my communication and
aimed towards further reinforcing the strengths and working on the weakness issues.
Moreover, critical analysis is a personal standard which is required for every nursing
processes such as comprehensive assessment, suitable interventions, evaluation, etc.
It is required that is use my skills of critical analysis in these processes which I have to
perform routinely in my practice. After strengthening on these standards, I can improve
my service provision and become a better nurse. Since, these standards are also
particularly relevant in mental health nursing, they will help me in shaping into a better
mental health nurse.

3.3. My three professional standards along with reflective writing pieces of my
professional practice and learning that are linked with these standards
I feel I do not have quality evidence for certain professional standards which are
collaborative working, good communication and professionalism.
1. First reflection- Collaborative working
Collaborative working is a working approach in healthcare in which various
professionals from different expertise come together to build a team and achieve a
common goal (Douglas, 2009). I work in mental health nursing and mental disorders
have a complex nature as they are usually associated with physical impairments as
well. Therefore, while managing such cases, it is required that I team up with a
multidisciplinary team such as Doctors with other expertise, psychiatrist, social workers,
etc. For effective and appropriate treatment, it is required that every professional
contributes.Moreover, in my practice, I have experienced that it is equally essential that
I involve the patient and their families in the care planning and decision-making (Ahmad,
2009). Collaborating with other professionals has been my weakness as in personal life
I preferred to do task single-handedly. However, I faced various problems such as
delayed positive health outcomes for patient, team mates’ frustration towards me,
supervisors yelling, etc. due to my lack of efforts in team functioning.One particular
incident in which my supervisor told me that the patient could have been at home, but
he is in hospital because of me, hit my mind. After that incident, I ensured that I
maintain suitable and comprehensive records of the care delivery to the patients so that

I can share data with my team mates effectively. I used my communication skills to
exchange the information about the patient’s condition and care plan to the team mates
efficiently.I exchanged information with the patients and other professionals of team
mates to make sure that there is no withholding of information which may lead topoor or
ineffectivecare delivery. I also ensure that I maintain transparency while working in
partnership to avoid incidents of disputes in the collaborated team.I ensure that I
understand that most significant factor in team working is sharing a common goal for the
patient so it is important that I am familiar the set goals completely in order to be a
source of contribution to the team and prevent confusions. Further, I should understand
my role and responsibility so that I can coordinate properly with other team members. I
have observed that disturbance in team working occurs, when all the professionals are
not given independence while working in coordination. I acknowledge and respect other
professional’sexpertise and working strategy.
2. Second reflection- Good communication
The importance of good communication is paramount in healthcare sector, particularly,
in nursing practice. As a nurse, I come across patients from diverse communities.
During those times, it becomes significant that I am aware of the required
communication skills to manage those patients. I was taught in theory classes during
my graduation that effective flow of communication encourages inclusion of patients
from diverse communities and in this way I can avoid any incident of discrimination

which is an ethical and legalobligation on every healthcare professional. However, it
was much difficult to implement in practice as sometimes, I passed discriminatory
comments without knowing. I taught myself to be extremely careful particularly when
dealing with patients from different ethnicity.
Being a nurse, I spend the most time with the nurse, therefore it is essential that I
develop an interpersonal relationship with the patient based on trust.Particularly in
mental health nursing, when dealing with patient of cognitive impairment, it is essential
that I demonstrate empathy during communication.As in such conditions, patient is
unaware of his/her behavior, so it becomes my responsibility to show empathy and
patience in such cases. In my placement, I faced many such incidents where patients
were abusive, self-harming or non-responding. During the placement, my supervisor
kept informing me and motivating me about ways to deal with such kind of cases. I
found that the therapeutic communication is a basic need in building an interpersonal
relationship with the patient so that their management becomes easier and effective. My
supervisor taught me by showing that I must attempt to nurture an open relationship
with the patient based on trustso that in some cases I can identify the underlying
etiologies of their mental ailments. If we can identify the hidden underlying cause of a
disorder, it can help immensely in formulating disease intervention such as
psychotherapy.
I also aim to give the patients full opportunity to practice autonomy. I, particularly,
ensured this by giving them control over the direction of conversation and decision-
making. At few incidents, patients revealed specific information which they were not
proud of. I ensured that I do not judge them based on those information (Bach & Grant,

2011). Another important aspect of communication has been obtaining informed
consent. I made sure that I explained the procedure and sessions to the patients or their
appointed guardians, in a manner that they understood it completely.
3. Third Reflection- Professionalism
During my early practicing period, I was instructed frequently to be professional. I could
not understand what everyone meant and therefore I searched the definition of
professionalism and found that the concept meant different to everyone.Professionalism
in nursing can be related to appearance and attitude on one hand and to knowledge
and skills on other hand. I found in the literature that some experts may see it as
continuous experience to improve the nursing practices. After searching thoroughly and
having a discussion about this with my mentors, I concluded that professionalism
includes cognitive, attitudinal and psychomotor factors (Ghadirian et al., 2014).I believe
that the standards I will place for my service provision will define my competent level
during my nursing practice. As part of professionalism,I must have a set of standards
that exhibit a desired and attainable degree of performance that can be compared with
my actual performance. Some of the standards that I established for myself to maintain
professionalism are maintaining safe and clinically competent care delivery,
accountability for the clinical decision that I make and continuous professional
development. Professionalism is related to patient-centered care in literature to
accomplish the best possible health outcome for service users (Davis & Charlotte,
2014). I also got myself aware with all the relevant Federal and State legislations and
hospital policies so that I could practice lawfully and professionally. I also learnt about
the working code of ethics so that I could be mindful of them and improve my scope of

practice. I aimed to grow continuouslyby practicing reflection (NursingUniforms.net,
2011).
I also focused on one important aspect of professionalism which is leadership which I
found can be gained by encouragingautonomy and coordination
(Shohani&Zamanzadeh, 2017). I observed that one of peers asked various questions
with the seniors which proved to be very helpful for all of us. So, I concluded that in
nursing professionalism it is essential to have a spirit of Inquiry. So, I kept reminding
myself to keep asking questions to build knowledge and improve existing knowledge. I
should dedicate myself to life-long learning which may involve making efforts to find out
patterns of responses from patients and their context (Dikmen et al., 2016). Lastly, it is
frequently seen that people at first, judge through personal appearance. So, I ensured
that I wore clean scrubs, neat hair, and clean shoes and remain well-groomed look. It
not only made me look professional but also gave an impression that I care about
myself and so I can care for others as well.
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