Reflective Essay of a Nurse

This reflective essay explores the experience of a nurse in the nursing field while working and studying. It discusses the use of Personal Development Planning (PDP) and SWOT analysis in nursing. The essay also highlights the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats faced by nurses. It delves into the impact of technology and government initiatives on nursing. The essay concludes by emphasizing the benefits of studying while working in improving skills and securing a nursing position.

Reflective Essay of a Nurse 1
THE REFLECTIVE ESSAY OF A NURSE
Course
Professor’s Name
Institution
Date

Reflective Essay of a Nurse 2
The Reflective Essay of a Nurse
Introduction
When I was growing up, I had the dream of becoming a nurse to treat and help the sick. I
grew up in a community where many people were infected by diseased caused by changes in
climate such as chest diseases. These diseases caused death among many people including one of
my family members. The ailments mostly occurred in the winter when the snow covered all the
surface of the surrounding and cold was all over the place. The diseases caused many suffering
and death to my people which encouraged me to study hard in my school to achieve my dream
career of becoming a nurse.
This is a reflective essay that covers my experience in the nursing field while I used to
work while studying. I have used several analysis techniques such as SWOT and PDP to
demonstrate my expertise in the university and my place of work (Song and Lindquist, 2015,
p.86). The main reason I used SWOT and PDP analysis was to promote my skills and abilities,
reduce my weakness, develop opportunities and reduce the threats.

Reflective Essay of a Nurse 3
Personal Development Planning (PDP)
PDP is an organized and supported process commenced by an individual to reveal upon
their performance, learning, and accomplishment and to design their career and educational
development.
The purpose of PDP is to inspire students to have self-control when taking their studies.
The PDP can also be used to assist individuals in career development. PDP is applied in a
variety of contexts, altering the way students take their studies, choices they make in their
personal and academic life and prioritize their activities. PDP help student to be more effective
by being self-driven learners, understanding what they are learning and improve their skills for
study and career development and finally articulate their goals and assess progress to their
accomplishment (Mikkonen et al.,2017, p.2000).
When put into practice, personal development planning has a lot of impact on personal
development in terms of skills and abilities. In the field of nursing, the PDP has the following
significances as demonstrated from the different literature reviews. It enables the nurses to be
self-driven in their activities as PDP teaches an individual on how to work towards their goals
without supervision. PDP also enables nursing to perfect their strengths and improve in their
weakness.

Reflective Essay of a Nurse 4
Swot Analysis
The SWOT analysis is a tactical planning mechanism used to aid an organization or an
individual identify strengths, opportunities, weaknesses, and threats associated with project
planning, business competition or personal development. It is used to maximize individual or
organization activities to achieve its goal while identifying new opportunities and working on
risks.
Strengths
I am a patient, compassionate, respectful, team player and have excellent communication
skills. I did discover all my strengths in the university through the use of personal development
planning techniques. There was this day an old man came to the hospital, but he did carry any
document or hospital card for treatment. I helped the man to get his papers from home by calling
her daughter who brought the document to the hospital and his father was treated. I made sure
the man understood all the instruction of the given by the doctor before allowing him to go
home. I also called her daughter to encourage her to take care of her father. I reminded the man
that he is supposed to carry the documents for treatment every time he visited the hospital. Being
good at communication has enabled me to easily carry out my duties as per expectation as I can
express myself easily (Shin, Park, and Kim, 2015,p.176)

Reflective Essay of a Nurse 5
Weaknesses
Am not good in public addressing when it comes to addressing a bigger group of people.
When addressing a group of people, am attacked by stage fear mainly during the class
presentation in the university and when speaking to a group of patients or staffs in the hospital
(Willis, and Thurston, 2015.p.383). Through the help of PDP, I realized this problem of being
shy and I worked hard to fight by exposing myself in bigger groups discussions to reduce the
effect of stage fear (McDowell and Boyd, 2018, p.428). I have a challenge of being emotional
mostly when a face a difficult situation where I am unable to deliver. For example, there was a
time in the hospital when a sick person with breathing difficulties died on my hands. I was
carried away by the death of that person in such a way that I wasn’t able to work the whole of
that day.
Opportunities
The hospital that I work for is giving me a chance to use the analytical and skills I
acquired in the university into practice. For examples am given the work of washing hands
would care in the hospital. It is helping me to understand in areas I need to put more energy and
where to perfect my skills and abilities. The hospital has given me a chance to have the required
experience that will enable me to register as a qualified nurse.
Currently, I am working with different staff from a different field in the hospitals who
helped me to improve my skill to a higher level. It helped develop my skills as a result of having
multi-dispensary working and sharing of information with my working staff. For example, they

Reflective Essay of a Nurse 6
help me to improve my confidence as I am given many chances to address the hospital stuff
during meeting.e.g. giving votes of thanks.
As result of many training, I have taken part in the university or when working has
enabled me to be more marketable in the field of medicine which has enable me to receive offers
from different hospitals to work for them. It is a result of my skills of being confidence and
better communication skill which helps me in managing people, problem solving and self-
control. I have attended three months of training on how to handle people of different
characteristics and background (Pan et al.,2017, p.417). I also have taken part in charity work
where we used to give free counselling to high school student in the country.
The improved technology has created more forum to improve my skill in my field.
Through the internet, I can easily access online classes that help develop my skills and
knowledge in my field (Ning, and Costello, 2018, p.12). Also through the internet, I can the
answers or clarification from the internet. Through social media, I can consult staff from
different hospitals and all over the world. Through the internet, I was able to carry out research
to solve challenges did arise in the hospital. (Abay, Kaplan, Sahin, and Pinar,2016,p.5)
Through the internet, I was able to access videos on YouTube that assisted me in carrying
out wound care and hand washing of the patients. It was on a weekend when many of the
hospital staffs were not present. The fire broke in a neighbouring building of the hospital. I had
to give first aid to the patients who admitted from the burns. I visited the YouTube website
where I found a faster way of providing first aid to patients suffering from fire burns. Theses
researches from the internet or secondary sources such as books are of importance mostly when
an urgent solution is necessary (Ansari et al., 2018, p.111)

Reflective Essay of a Nurse 7
The government through the ministry of health is providing free training to nursing in
the country (Mackay et al., 2016,73). My goal is to attend this training to improve and perfect
my skills to another level.
Threats
One of the significant challenges that I am experiencing is to manage my study time and
work time. It occurs when I have a busy day in the hospital and am unable to work on my class
work. I need to learn how to manage my time to enable me not to neglect my studies (Amelia
Howard-Hill and Byrne, 2017, p.26). The changes in technology have forced the hospitals to
spend a lot of resources to have new equipment and tools to accommodate the changes in
technology.

Reflective Essay of a Nurse 8
Conclusion
Studying while still working has enabled me to perfect my studies and enabled me to
practice what I am learning in class into a reality. Through the use of Personal development
planning, I have been able to improve my skills and abilities by having a regular evaluation of
my progress in the school. By using SWOT analysis in the university and place of work, I was
able to recognize my strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats during my studies
(Betihavas et al.,2016,p.15).
Am still going to use the PDP to continue improving my skills and abilities to graduate
with the required skills to enable me to secure the position of a nurse in one of the hospitals in
the country.

Reflective Essay of a Nurse 9
Reference
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