Readiness for Professional Nursing: A Detailed Self-Assessment

This essay provides a self-assessment of readiness to assume the role and responsibilities of a professional registered nurse, reflecting on twenty years of experience as a Licensed Practical Nurse in the U.S. Army. It highlights strengths such as culturally competent practices, accountability, patient-centered care, and embodying the 6Cs of caring (care, courage, compassion, commitment, communication, and competence). Areas for development include intravenous drug administration and technology handling. The essay expresses excitement about leadership opportunities and addresses concerns about time management, proposing evidence-based studies and reflective practice to overcome this challenge and transition successfully into a registered nursing role.

Running head: NURSING
NURSING
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

NURSING
I have been serving in the position of licensed practice nurse in the US army for last twenty
years. I had gone through different forms of experiences in these twenty years that had helped
me develop competencies in the field of nursing. One of the most important things that I am
competent in is providing culturally competent practices. I have served many army men who
were from different cultural backgrounds and therefore I have developed strength in my
culturally sensitiveness, cultural awareness, cultural knowledge and cultural competence.
Therefore, this skill would be my strength when I would become a registered nurse and provided
culturally competent care service helping patients to be highly satisfied. At the same time, I am
entirely accountable and harbor the responsibility for the care I provide to the patients along with
my judgments and actions. I try to carry out the actions along with the agreement of the patients
and the families and thereby provide person centered care to them. Empowering patients is one
of the most important parts I believe in and therefore the care I provide is not only clinical but
also ensures compassion and empathy. Another important strength is that I have developed the
skills which are required to ensure the 6c of caring. I believe that the service I provide ensures
care, courage, compassion, commitment and communication along with competence. Therefore,
the important nursing principles that are required for effective caring of the patients are well
adopted by me. However, there are certain areas where I still want to excel. The foremost of
them is the intravenous administrations of drugs. I am not confident about the approach although
i have seen my immediate seniors conduct the procedures easily. However, I want to develop
skills and in-depth knowledge about the procedure before taking up the responsibility. Another
important weakness that I want to overcome is proper handling of the technology. I am quite
shaky in handling the different new instruments and machines although I am trying to overcome
the uneasiness and fear. I believe that the degree of the registered nursing would help me to

NURSING
fulfill my aspirations and make me more competent in my profession. I believe that the new
degree of nursing would enable me to be a successful leader of the new enrolled nurses where I
would be able to help them with their career by enhancing their knowledge. I would be also
helping them with the knowledge that I have gathered over the years by hands-on approach as
well as from the new knowledge that I will be developing after this course. However, I have
always faced issues with proper time management and i am very concerned about this fact. In my
new career of professional nursing, I have to handle more responsibilities than a licensed nurse
does and I have to be more efficient in managing time. This is mainly because often in very busy
shifts, I have to single handedly performing many important tasks simultaneously. Therefore,
with the evidence based studies and proper reflective practice, I would overcome such barrier
and try to be a successful registered nurse in my healthcare centre.