“Nurses are self-aware of their personal beliefs and values, and have a responsibility to challenge harmful biases, stereotypical views and discriminatory and racist behaviours and to promote social inclusion.”
– Canadian Nurses Association
We as nurses have important professional values and they are often well-known to the public and/or community which we work. An article written by Poorchangizi (2017). states that “The use of these values in nursing practice increased the quality of patients care, nursesā occupational satisfaction, their retention in nursing and commitment to the organization. Professional values are a source to promote nursesā ethical competencies in clinical settings and dealing with ethical concerns in the present era”.
This website allowed me to understand my top values using a step by step method. Now, I actively document in this journal every day as way for me to reflect on the day and how I am feeling about where I stand on my own values.
Reflection
I believe that this learning outcome was met through our first discussion posts stating our top ten values. I spoke about my top ten, shown below in my discussion post. I also replied to two of my classmates on the subject. I found that when I really thought about my values, it was hard to choose just ten. It made me think about the importance of those top ones and reflect on why I chose them in the first place. Understanding our own values and beliefs is such an important part of our job and it is evident through this course how much it can effect our patients and their families.
My discussion posts on the topic
One specific value that I aspire to develop in my nursing practice is openness. I believe that being open to all different situations and different cultures is what makes a better therapeutic relationship between the nurse and client. An experience that challenged my values was the introduction of MAID. MAID allowed me to reflect on both sides of the situation and made me become more open to the idea of this happening in Canada. It wasnāt until I had a patient myself that was going to be having MAID that day, that I truly was open to the idea that this is the patientās choice and I was there to make the last minutes of his life more comfortable. Where I work, unfortunately, I do not have many different cultures that I care for, and I have not been exposed to many things. However, I understand that culture applies to everyone. In the article What does it mean to be culturally competent, it describes culture as the habits, attitudes, rituals, behaviours etc. and I believe my experience made me gain knowledge on different views and practices as well as develop the necessary skills to interact appropriately with the patient.
Reference:
Rexdale Womens Centre (n.d). What does it mean to be culturally competent? Retrieved from http://rapworkers.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/what-does-it-mean-to-be-culturally-competent-1.pdf
Responses to my peers
Hi Krista,
Thanks for sharing!
I agree, determination is a big factor in my life as well. I believe it is what keeps all of us in this program as we are determined to make it to the end and determined to become RNs. How do you use determination specifically throughout your practice as an RPN? Has there ever been a time where determination has interfered with your practice? For me, I am determined to always have my work done on time so I donāt have to stay late. I have learned time management skills as well as prioritizing tasks because of this.
Nice to meet you,
Madison
Hi Michelle,
Thanks for sharing! I work in a rural hospital but have the occasional patient that does not speak English. I find this very challenging when trying to communicate with the patient and provide them with proper care. I recently had a patient whos family did not visit very often and unfortunately would not be around to answer calls from us when we needed translation or clarification on the patient. I found this difficult as I was to perform an in and out catheter to obtain a urine sample, but was not able to explain this to the patient to get her consent without her family there to help. I find that trying to learn some of the most used words in their language is helpful such as pain, toilet, wash, bathroom, medication etc.
– Madison
My top values that I shared to my peers
References:
Canadian Nurses Association. (n.d). Nursesā Professional Responsibilities in Partnering with Indigenous Peoples in Improving Health Outcomes: Cultural Competence and Cultural Safety. Retrieved from https://www.cna-aiic.ca/-/media/cna/page-content/pdf-en/cultural-competence-and-safety-competencies.pdf.
Jeffrey, S. (2019). 7 Steps to Discovering Your Personal Core Values. Retrieved from https://scottjeffrey.com/personal-core-values/.
Poorchangizi, B., Farokhzadian, J., Abbaszadeh, A., Mirzaee, M., & Borhani, F. (2017). The importance of professional values from clinical nursesā perspective in hospitals of a medical university in Iran.Ā BMC medical Ethics,Ā 18(1), 20.
cultural competence in nursing 