Meeting the Learning Outcomes in Healthcare: Reflections and Critical Thinking

This assignment reflects on the different learning modules of the semester that the student has gone through in healthcare. It discusses the importance of reflection and critical thinking in closing the gap between theory and practice, and improving the quality of patient care. The student shares their experiences and learnings on clinical knowledge, decision-making skills, communication, values and ethics, and patient-centered care. The assignment concludes with the student's plans for continuous professional development.

Running head: MEETING THE LEARNING OUTCOMES
MEETING THE LEARNING OUTCOMES
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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MEETING THE LEARNING OUTCOMES
Within the healthcare system, reflections are considered to be one of the most important
method for reviewing, analyzing as well as evaluation experiences mainly by the procedure of
drawing upon the different theoretical concept of the previous learning to develop the future
actions (Hoeve et al. 2014). Researchers are of the opinion that continual critical thinking as well
as reflection has the ability of closing the gap between the theory as well as practices, which in
turn help in the improvement of the quality of care of the patients, and thereby participating in
stimulating personal swell as professional development (Van Bogaert et al., 2014). This
assignment will mainly reflect on the different learning modules of the semester that I have gone
through. Thereby, I can develop an understanding how well I have performed in the different
discussions and activities of the modules. It will effectively help me to become self-aware and
successfully judge my performance in the sessions to develop the ability of continuous
professional development that the RN standards of practice have already stated.
Before the initiation of the semester, I was not aware that in order to become a nursing
professional, an individual has to go through several theoretical as well as practical sessions to
develop knowledge. I was not aware that a nursing professional has to go through learning of so
many theories for effective application of intervention and to ensure patient health and safety and
higher patient satisfaction. In the beginning months of the semester, I used to believe that I have
to develop huge clinical knowledge and expertise so that I can provide high quality and safe care.
However, with the passing of the days, I realized that often nurses have to face different barriers
in their approach. Therefore, only learning scientific knowledge and modern advancements in
nursing can never help in providing effective care to the patients (Bramley et al., 2014). A
number of attributes that are also important are critical thinking skills, decision making skills,
proper judgmental skills, time management, effective communication, development of proper

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values and ethics and many others. Therefore, I learnt the fact that being scientifically updated
and knowing all the modern evidences of providing the best scientific and clinical expertise is
sumptuous for providing high quality care. At the same time, the professionals should also apply
values, principles, and ethics and try to learn from their experiences (Chang et al., 2015).
Learning from the different types of experiences is also another way by which individuals can
learn new insights and thereby enhance their theoretical knowledge effectively. Often in many
cases, a number of barriers can arise when the individuals are trying to make clinical decisions.
These may be lack of knowledge and skills, lack of confidence in critical appraisal skills, lack of
educational preparation, negatives beliefs, attitudes and values, lack of time, heavy patient
workloads, limited resources, inadequate staffing and many others (Moss et al. 2016). Improper
decision-making may result in severe harm to patient health or breaches in ethical and legal
requirements. These learning outcomes are mainly helpful, as it would now help me to learn
different ways by which I can overcome such behaviors and take part in effective decision-
making. This semester taught me different curative as well as assessment based learning theories
that acted as guidelines and helped me to understand how I can appropriately apply proper
theories ensuring proper diagnosis, and development of care plans. I also learn about the
effective methods of reflection and the ways reflection helps in development of good quality
practice and skills in healthcare. I never knew that learning nursing is so systematic and such
systematic approach developed the urge to know more in me.
In the initial days, I was mainly fidgety in my approach. I used to place more focus on the
clinical expertise skills and therefore always used to collect evidences that would ensure the
more up to date treatment procedure or medication to the patient (Flinkfan et al. 2015). However,
with the gradual passing of days, I realized the importance of values and principles in nursing

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practices. I realized that safe care is not the only main priority of nursing practices. I developed
the idea that treating patients with care and dignity is equally important in providing quality care
to practice. I could develop an idea that patient satisfaction was highly linked with the service in
which the patients felt respected by the nursing professionals. The modern evidences state that
putting the patients in the centre of the care is one of the best ways of making patients feel
empowered. This learning was new to me as I never provided important to such attributes of
caring. Therefore, this new learning would be helpful to me in my future days as in the present
day generation development of therapeutic relationship with the patient is as important as
developing a highly efficient clinical care planning for the patient (Mills et al. 2015). Therefore, I
tried to develop the attributes by which i can develop bonding and relationship with mu patients
and joined the workshop classes where communication skills both verbal and non-verbal were
taught to me. These skills ensured that I could communicate with them in ways by which they
feel included in their acre plan. I was quite concerned with my decision-making abilities. These
abilities were seen to be lacking in me as I was lacking confidence in taking decisions that
concerned the life of the individuals. By conducting an in-depth analysis, I saw that the main
issues that I was facing was lack of knowledge as well as a proper framework by which I can
follow the cues to effective decision making. With researches conducted by me, I realized that
there are several important theories than can help me to take effective decisions while planning
for care for patients. I realized that the clinical reasoning cycle id one such theories that provide
several guiding steps where nursing professionals can understand the symptoms, link them with
determinists of health, pathophysiology and others and thereby help in identifying the care
priorities (Arnold et al. 2015). Depending on them, I can develop goals and hence can decide
how to apply them. With the development of critical reasoning skills, I leant to understand the

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priorities by which I need to attend many patients at the same time in a using soft in a proper
manner so that adverse events do not take place.
The aspects that I have learnt in this subject are highly significant in my profession and
they would help me to reach the zenith of success in the future. One of the most important things
that I have learnt is the procedure of reflection and its significance. I consider this procedure of
learning is one of the very best ways as it helps individuals to develop hands on approach from a
situation that I have faced in my own life while attending patients. It readily helps to realize the
weakness as well as strength of individuals at the same time giving insight about the aspects that
they need to change in the future for better service delivery to the patients. Thereby, it helps in
development of deep learning (Cho et al. 2015). It also helps in identification of different types
or personal as well as professional strengths also providing to me the important areas where I
need for improvement. It also helps individuals to understand their education needs thereby
helping in acquisition of new knowledge and skills. It was through reflection I realized that only
learning about clinical aspects never satisfied the patient. Providing them a compassionate care is
one important aspects of nursing as well. It also helped me to understand the importance of
strengthening of the emotional intelligence helping me to act with integrity. It also helped me to
be more confident in my approach 9nilson et al. 2016). Therefore, the aspects that I have leant in
the subject are totally aligning with the learning outcomes. After studying for the semester, I
have developed sound decision-making skills and are able to critically analyze situations before
coming to any particular decisions. I have come to an understanding that the decision-making
skills that I have developed would have significant contribution in the real scenarios. Healthcare
professionals need to make important clinical decisions in everyday practices. As healthcare is
becoming very complex in the present days, healthcare professionals need to rely their decision-

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making skills for maintaining up-to-date care and positive outcomes. It contributes significantly
on the safety and quality of care for patients and ensures their better quality life. Therefore, the
subjects have correctly been studies by me and had helped me to meet the learning outcomes
effectively.
One of the most important things that I believe would help me is to solve more case
studies on patients with complex disorders. I believe that the subject has given us a thorough
knowledge about the importance of knowledge and experiences in nursing profession. It has also
provided important ideas about barriers in decision-making. I have also learnt several nursing
theories, which would help me to act as guiding framework during my times of practicing my
profession. I also understood importance of learning. I believe that I need to handle more case
studies to check how well I am fairing in application of the theories under the guidance of a
mentor. Therefore, I would request my mentor to provide me more case studies so that I become
expert in decision-making skills and application of correct theories according to situations
(Gouzou et al. 2015). I would also attend workshop classes on healthcare sessions where I can
engage in different role-play session and thereby become more confident in different crucial
situations that may arise in different situations.
From the above discussion, I have realized that I have learnt several nursing theories that
will help me in my future practices to effectively devise high quality care plan for the patients. I
will be able to develop therapeutic relationship with patients and hence will be able to satisfy
them. I will also work on my reflection practices as well as decision among skills that are also
important aspects of healthcare nursing and ensures quality and safe care for patients at the same
time resulting in development of professional career.

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References:
Arnold, E.C. and Boggs, K.U., 2015. Interpersonal Relationships-E-Book: Professional
Communication Skills for Nurses. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Bramley, L. and Matiti, M., 2014. How does it really feel to be in my shoes? Patients'
experiences of compassion within nursing care and their perceptions of developing
compassionate nurses. Journal of clinical nursing, 23(19-20), pp.2790-2799.
Chang, H.Y., Shyu, Y.I.L., Wong, M.K., Friesner, D., Chu, T.L. and Teng, C.I., 2015. Which
aspects of professional commitment can effectively retain nurses in the nursing
profession?. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 47(5), pp.468-476.
Cho, S.H., Kim, Y.S., Yeon, K.N., You, S.J. and Lee, I.D., 2015. Effects of increasing nurse
staffing on missed nursing care. International nursing review, 62(2), pp.267-274.
Flinkman, M. and Salanterä, S., 2015. Early career experiences and perceptions–a qualitative
exploration of the turnover of young registered nurses and intention to leave the nursing
profession in Finland. Journal of nursing management, 23(8), pp.1050-1057.
Gouzou, M., Karanikola, M., Lemonidou, C., Papathanassoglou, E. and Giannakopoulou, M.,
2015. Measuring professional satisfaction and nursing workload among nursing staff at a Greek
Coronary Care Unit. Revista da Escola de Enfermagem da USP, 49(SPE), pp.15-21.
Hoeve, Y.T., Jansen, G. and Roodbol, P., 2014. The nursing profession: public image, self‐
concept and professional identity. A discussion paper. Journal of advanced nursing, 70(2),
pp.295-309.

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Mills, J., Wand, T. and Fraser, J.A., 2015. On self-compassion and self-care in nursing: Selfish
or essential for compassionate care?. International journal of nursing studies, 52(4), pp.791-793.
Moss, M., Good, V.S., Gozal, D., Kleinpell, R. and Sessler, C.N., 2016. An official critical care
societies collaborative statement: burnout syndrome in critical care health care professionals: a
call for action. American Journal of Critical Care, 25(4), pp.368-376.
Nilsson, A., Rasmussen, B.H. and Edvardsson, D., 2016. A threat to our integrity–Meanings of
providing nursing care for older patients with cognitive impairment in acute care
settings. Scandinavian journal of caring sciences, 30(1), pp.48-56.
Van Bogaert, P., Timmermans, O., Weeks, S.M., van Heusden, D., Wouters, K. and Franck, E.,
2014. Nursing unit teams matter: Impact of unit-level nurse practice environment, nurse work
characteristics, and burnout on nurse reported job outcomes, and quality of care, and patient
adverse events—A cross-sectional survey. International journal of nursing studies, 51(8),
pp.1123-1134.