Elizabeth Mitchell RN



Self Assessment of ReasoningElizabeth MitchellFerris State UniversitySelf Assessment of ReasoningThroughout this semester, this nurse has made significant gains in knowledge of health and health promotion. In the following, she will discuss important information that has helped her grow as a nurse and how this has affected her thoughts and feelings. She will also discuss her point of view on the topics. Finally, she will analyze her thinking throughout the course of the semester and grade herself on how well she is critically thinking.Significant ContentNurses are important in the promotion of health to individuals and the community as a whole. They use education and the best evidence based practices to empower individuals and promote change in the health behaviors of society. The current conditions of the United States show just how important it is to promote health at every age. Promoting exercise, healthy eating and stress management are a few of the important things nurses accomplish in their practice. This nurse learned the importance and the best ways to empower individuals throughout the semester in this course (Pender, Murdaugh & Parsons, 2011).Providing culturally sensitive care and making health promotion plans, which center around these cultural influences, is essential to good nursing care. A nurse must focus on the individual, on his/her level, while also focusing on community influences and social support systems. Health promotion is very different from one individual to the next. Understanding these ideas and concepts is central to providing nursing care and promoting health (Pender, Murdaugh & Parsons, 2011). Thoughts and FeelingsPersonally, this nurse has not been addressing health promotion as much as she should. She feels it is a very important topic and feels very strongly about the above topics. As a nation, the United States is struggling with bad health habits and behaviors. She feels it is important for nurses to realize the necessity of promoting health in every aspect of care inside and outside of her job. This should begin with educating individuals and focusing on the children. By making healthy behaviors a norm in children, society will begin to adopt new health behaviors, which will promote a greater change. At first, health promotion was a dismissed thought by this nurse. Now she feels it is one of the most important things a nurse can do in her lifetime to impact the community in which she lives. Point of View or AssumptionsBefore doing the required course work and participating in class discussions, this nurse was not interested in health promotion. She saw health promotion as a topic nurses need to learn about, but did not think it was as important to her in the acute care setting. She assumed most patients she saw already understood these health promotion ideas and just chose not to follow them. She also assumed that anything she taught her patients would not make a difference because they had already been taught on these topics. She did not have a good outlook or point of view on health promotion, especially in her acute cardiac patients.Analysis of ThinkingThrough looking closer at the topics discussed in the course and where this nurse began in her thinking, she has realized how much she has grown in her critical thinking this semester. She has a much different idea of health promotion than she began with, which will help her practice in the future.This nurse’s point of view and assumptions were based on past experiences and background of this nurse. She was brought up in a family which was health conscious and promoted exercise and healthy eating. She was only allowed to eat candy on Sundays and had well balanced meals three times a day. With this in mind, this nurse did not think about how others may have been raised differently. She already had the education and background for healthy living and thus made assumptions that everyone had this point of view as well. These assumptions were wrong. Her assumptions that she could not make a difference or her patients already had all the information they needed to make healthy choices were also false. She realizes now that her point of view and assumptions are often wrong, or at least entirely different from others. This has forced her to look at things in a different way, from a different point of view. The readings and class discussions have helped this nurse come to the above conclusions on her point of view and assumptions. She was able to hear classmates discuss their experiences, which made it evident she was missing others points of views. She was forced to look at the information and topics in a different way, which was uncomfortable, but made a difference in the end outcome.With the nurse generalizing the point of view of others and assuming certain things about each patient, that may or may not be true, many implications could occur. A patient that is ready and willing to learn and change behaviors may not be taught about the topics they should. This could affect the person’s health even more. This nurse would have missed an opportunity to improve the health of a patient because of her closed mindedness.This nurse is good at researching information and applying it to situations. She was able to realize her point of view and assumptions are often wrong and thus promote change in her thinking. These abilities will allow her to provide better patient care in the future.Critical thinking is something this nurse has been striving to improve throughout her nursing career. When having to decide on a grade to give the thinking in this paper, this nurse would give herself an A-. Although she is doing well with critical thinking, there is always room for improvement. Her work has shown some weaknesses, mostly the difficulty in seeing the point of view of others and using assumptions in practice. This nurse is often not aware of her biases and makes decisions without using critical thinking skills. This paper shows she is aware of her learning and where she feels the need for improvement. Her work is precise, clear and shows her ability to make inference based on information gained. Her thinking is clear and focused. She is able to address her weaknesses and therefore will be able to grow in these areas in her future practice. She has learned much throughout this semester and hopes to continue to improve her critical thinking skills and her education base in the role of a nurse focused on health promotion.ReferencesPender, N.J., Murdaugh, C.L., & Parsons, M.A. (2011). Health promotion in nursing practice. (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. ................
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