Question 1
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Professional practice as a community worker requires a sound understanding of what professionalism means, the expectations of consumers, employers, the profession and society in general, and the implications for nursing practice.
Examine a policy as a part of your research and its associated professional expectations. Consider how this policy will impact on your practice and professional growth as a community worker.
The policy requiring individual responsibility to take care, advise and direct those who might be vulnerable to health risks.
The policy gives the community health workers the mandate to take care, direct and give advice to the people that might intentionally or ignorantly be under the risk of some serious health effects (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2019). These cuts across in all community settings because there are a lot of people within the community that have no clue regarding the Expectations needed as far as health and keeping safe are concerned.
The policy will have a great significance in my life especially because it trains me to be that most caring person at the same time responsible person and a professional who takes care of those in need (Park, Han & Pittman, 2020). Taking care of those in need does not mean that I will need to provide for their various needs but simply in providing advice and counsel that is necessary to help those who are vulnerable avoid the health risks that are usually associated with their ignorance. The policy will turn me into becoming a medical professional who will not demand payment or a favor to offer what I must offer those who are vulnerable.
Question 2
Why is it important to set goals?
Goal setting is an important method of:
- Deciding what is important for you to achieve in your career / life
- Separating what is important for you from what is irrelevant and staying focussed on what is important to you
- Motivating yourself to achievement
- Building your self-confidence based on measured achievement of goals
Set Specific Goals
Set specific measurable goals. If you achieve all conditions of a measurable goal, then you can be confident and comfortable in its achievement. If you consistently fail to meet a measurable goal, then you can adjust it or analyse the reason for failure and take appropriate action to improve skills.
Set Measurable Goals
Clearly define the criteria in your mind for success or achievement of the goal. There should be definable limits on your goals so you know whether or not you have achieved it.
Set Performance, not Outcome Goals (Achievable goals)
This is very important. You should take care to set goals over which you have as much control as possible – there is nothing as dispiriting as failing to achieve a personal goal for reasons beyond your control such failure to gain a particular rotation, rostering issues, injury, or just plain bad luck. Goals based on outcomes are extremely vulnerable to failure because of things beyond your control.
If you base your goals on personal performance or skills or knowledge to be acquired, then you can keep control over the achievement of your goals and draw satisfaction from them. For example, you might set yourself a goal of caring for a person with a tracheostomy, but the opportunity to do so does not arise. If you had set your goal to gain more knowledge and skill in the care of a person with a tracheostomy tube, you have more control over what is possible from research and clinical skills sessions, and can draw satisfaction and self-confidence from its achievement.
Set Realistic Goals
Goals may be set unrealistically high for the following reasons:
- Other people: Other people can set unrealistic goals for you, based on what they want. Often this will be done in ignorance of your goals, desires and ambitions.
- Insufficient information: If you do not have a clear, realistic understanding of the skills and knowledge to be mastered, it is difficult to set effective and realistic goals.
- Always expecting your best performance and
- Lack of respect for self: If you do not respect your right to rest, relaxation and pleasure in life then you risk burnout.
Set time frames on your goals
Timelines will place limits on how long you are willing to persist along a particular path, and provide the opportunity to reassess either the goal itself, or the steps you have outlined to achieve the goal.
Setting Goals at the Right Level
Setting goals at the correct level is a skill that is acquired by practice.
You should set goals so that they are slightly out of your immediate grasp, but not so far that there is no hope of achieving them: no-one will put serious effort into achieving a goal that they believe is unrealistic. Personal factors such as tiredness, other commitments and the need for rest, etc. should be taken into account when goals are set.
Thinking a goal through
When you are thinking about how to achieve goals, asking the following questions can help you to focus on the sub-goals that lead to their achievement:
- What skills do I need to achieve this?
- What information and knowledge do I need?
- What help, assistance, or collaboration do I need?
- What resources do I need?
- What can block progress?
- Am I making any assumptions?
Is there a better way of doing things?
Part A
Discuss a professional goal that you have and discuss the steps that are needed to achieve your goal.
Advancing my studies to PhD is one of my professional goal.
The steps
Step 1: Defining my dream job
Step 2: writing it down
Step 3: Breaking it down into short-term goals.
Step 4: Making every goal measurable
Step 5: Creating an action plan
Part B
What support networks may you require to reach your goal? Where are they available?
I will need support from various stakeholders including institutions, medical laboratories in situations that will require research. I will also need the health professionals who have gone ahead of me to give tips and advice on rising above the career ladder. All these associated networks are found in institutions of higher learning. Most significantly, I will need entities that offer scholarships so that I will try my luck to head to one of the best institutions of higher learning to become that perfect person that I have ever dreamt to become someday (Cooper et al., 2017).
Part C
What further training or specialist advice do you need to reach your goal?
I will need discipline, determination and continuous increase of knowledge to help expand by scope of understanding some of these basic things. Additionally, I will keep attending some of the health-related seminar, workshops and conferences. They will act as part of the stimulants for not only advancing studies but also working.
Question 3
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With the increasing emphasis on efficiency and effectiveness in health care, how community workers manage their time is an important consideration. Time management is recognized as an important component of work performance and professional practice. Discuss the strategies you will use to develop your time management skills.
Some of the strategies that will help in time management among community workers include the following:
Learning to make a schedule and sticking to it. This involves organizing things so that you know what you will be handling in the following two weeks.
Learning to prioritize. Priority should be given to the most important things that if not done the opportunity might go. Priority is not meant for anything that comes along the way of a community health worker.
Setting specific boundaries. This will involve being careful with the people who are in your circle and the company you Keep. Having the right people in your circles will ensure that you manage your time effectively especially because one will not be readily available for them at any time.
Accounting for good distractions. It will be important to categorically outline the reasons why you might have gone the other way when you are supposed to do something different. It is through this accounting that one will be able to tell what to do the next time he or she gets himself in such a situation.
Training yourself to get some technical help. This will help avoid time wastage that might the associated with not having knowledge regarding some of the technological Aspects in today’s growing world.
Lastly, community workers should train themselves never to procrastinate. Procrastination is an enemy of time management. It only adds trouble on the already existing problems.
Question 4
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Self-care is imperative to personal health, sustenance to continue to care for others, and professional growth. Describe how you would care for yourself to ensure that you are able to continue to care for others? Examples may include exercise, relaxation classes, reading, art classes
One major ways through which I will take care of myself to take care of others is through taking care of my personal health. For example, avoiding some of the activities or behaviors that may negatively affect my life and literally deteriorate my life like avoiding alcohol and tobacco, eating a healthy and well-balanced diet. Additionally, ensuring that regular exercises become part of me. This should be about 60 minutes of exercises for proximately 3 to 5 times every week. Most significantly, I will learn to get plenty of sleep because the body needs sleep to function well through physical and mental recovery every night.
Question 5
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Learning strategies and styles are described in a range of ways. Following are two examples of ways to categorise different learning strategies and styles. The aim of providing these examples is to stimulate you to think about different learning styles.
Use this information to think about the ways you may have learnt and identify your preferred
approach. Once you have identified your preference you can put into place strategies to
assist you to learn more effectively.
Example One: Visual, auditory and Kinesthetic learning styles
Visual learning styles – this means you learn by seeing and looking.
You will:
- Take detailed notes rather than get involved in discussions
- Tend to sit in the front so you can see clearly
- Benefit from illustrations and presentations, and especially those in colour
- Make comments like: “How do you see the situation?”, “What do you see stopping you?”, “Do you see what I am showing you?”
Auditory learning style – this means you learn by hearing and listening.
You will:
- Enjoy discussions and talking things through and listening to others
- Acquire knowledge by reading aloud
- Hum and/or talk to yourself
- Make comments like: “I hear you clearly.”, “I’m wanting you to listen.”, “This sounds good.”
Kinesthetic learning style – this means you learn by touching and doing.
You will:
- Need lots of breaks and will want to move around
- Speak with your hands and gestures
- Remember what was done, but have difficulty with what was said or seen
- Learn through doing activities
- Make comments like: “How do you feel about this?”, “Let’s move forward together.”, “Are you in touch with what I am saying?”
Example Two: Felder-Silverman Learning Style Model
| Sensing learnersConcrete, practical, oriented towards factsand procedures. | Intuitive learnersConceptual, innovative, oriented towardtheories and meanings. |
| Visual learnersPrefer visual representations of presentedmaterial – pictures, diagrams, flow charts. | Verbal learnersPrefer written and spoken explanations. |
| Inductive learnersPrefer presentations that proceed from thespecific to the general. | Deductive learnersPrefer presentations that go from the general to the specific. |
| Active learnersLearn by trying things out, working withothers. | Reflective learnersLearn by thinking things through, workingalone. |
| Sequential learnersLinear, orderly, learn in small incrementalsteps. | Global learnersHolistic, systems thinkers, learn in largeleaps. |
The learning environment is recognised as having an impact in either encouraging or impeding a positive learning experience.
Which learning style/s do you believe represents your own learning style?
Kinesthetic learning style
I am more social and interactive. That is why I find myself doing it well in learning through activities. Additionally, I do not know how to concentrate for a longer time but I can effectively learn and understand when I give myself a lot of breaks.
Question 6
How would you identify personal and professional development opportunities and options?
Identifying yourself through self-evaluations after every career stage.
Having a career development plan.
Seeking various ways to learn from others.
Taking failure as a key To Success.
Taking every challenge that comes your way as an opportunity
Question 7
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How can you ensure that you operate within legal and ethical considerations for reviewing and improving own practice, including:
- Codes of practice
- Duty of care
- Rights and responsibilities of workers and employers
- Work role boundaries – responsibilities and limitations
Reading and familiarizing with the workplace safety and health practices.
Ensuring that I comply with every applicable safety standards associated to OSHA.
Ensuring that I follow a lawful employer safety and health rules and regulations through observing utilization of protective equipment while working.
Ensure that I report any condition that I received to be hazardous or dangerous to the safety of myself and other people.
Question 8
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Reflective practice enables nurses to develop their skills, increase their knowledge, and deal with emotionally challenging situations. Discuss how you will develop reflective practice, including feedback from supervisors and colleagues.
Reflective practice will involve the following stages:
One of the stage will be What, where, and who—the situation. This way voice a detail thought of the situation. Recognizing the time and the outcome.
The other stage is “How did it make you feel—your emotional state”
This will be a clear description of how one felt about the situation by being all themselves.
The other stage is “Why did it happen—making sense of the situation” this will involve thinking about why certain things happen the way they occurred and how the interaction looks like.
The other stage is reflecting on the fact that could you have acted differently. This is where critical review and insect development will come out.
The other stage it is asking oneself what you must do in future in case you find in such a situation. It will also involve asking yourself how this might change your practice as a health practitioner.
Question 9
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The ability to give and receive constructive feedback is crucial to the success of any professional workplace relationship. Think about a time when you were given feedback as a student nurse.
Part A
How involved did you feel in the feedback process? Did you self assess your own skills before being given feedback? Did you understand the feedback given to you? What did you learn about yourself and your skills as a result of the feedback?
The first time I was given the feedback was when I carried out a community assessment under the guidance of my supervisor. I did not expect that I will receive such a feedback because it overwhelmed me. I did not expect that I will receive such positive comments. While it appeared to be as an exaggeration or flattering, I realised that there is the inside of me that I never knew about myself. From the feedback, I noted that I have a heart for the community.
Part B
Did you make any changes to your practice following the feedback? If yes, what was it about the way the feedback was delivered that enabled you to change your practice? If no, why was this?
It is surprising that most of the content in the feedback was describing how I explicitly did well throughout the practice. However, there was one comment in the feedback regarding my confidence when addressing empathetic issues and situations. The feedback regarding my reaction to empathetic situations was so clean that it made me choose to change the way I reacted to some of the empathetic situations.
Part C
Discuss how you would seek support and specialist advice for further training.
Constantly engage my trainer and supervisor especially when I have any burning question. Additionally, I will need to continue to equip myself with the readings and stay up-to-date.
Part D
What support networks, internal and external, are available to health professionals within the health sector? List support networks that you may contact if required.
Medical practitioners Association
Rural family medical network
Rural doctors workforce agency.
Community members
Clients
Question 10
Continuous professional development (CPD) is defined as “the means by which members of the professions maintain, improve and broaden their knowledge, expertise and competence, and develop the personal and professional qualities required throughout their professional lives”. In health sector you are required to obtain 20 hours per year of CPD.
How will you reflect on your practice to inform your continuous professional development? Where and how can you find access and review information on current and emerging industry developments to improve and inform evidence-based practice? How will you plan your continuous professional development?
I will reflect by looking at what has happened since I first decided to continue developing my profession. This will involve finding out what I have achieved and what is different from the first time I decided to develop my profession. Different materials and sources that could help in professional development are readily available in the e-library. E-library materials are most appropriate because they contain the most recent information. For example, the journal articles mention different aspects of health-related age that have currently affected our community.
For this reason, I will need to plan my continuous professional development in a way that it allows me to balance between research and practice.
References
Cooper, E., Spilsbury, K., McCaughan, D., Thompson, C., Butterworth, T., & Hanratty, B. (2017). Priorities for the professional development of registered nurses in nursing homes: a Delphi study. Age and ageing, 46(1), 39-45.
Mackey, A., & Bassendowski, S. (2017). The history of evidence-based practice in nursing education and practice. Journal of Professional Nursing, 33(1), 51-55.
Park, J., Han, X., & Pittman, P. (2020). Does expanded state scope of practice for nurse practitioners and physician assistants increase primary care utilization in community health centers?. Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, 32(6), 447-458.
Stanhope, M., & Lancaster, J. (2019). Public health nursing e-book: Population-centered health care in the community. Elsevier Health Sciences.
