PCG REFLECTION

ALICEN SENNETT, RN
DECEMBER 6, 2020
PCG REFLECTION 1

STRENGTHS

Throughout, the course work that has been completed thus far I have learned so much.

Nursing is an ever-changing field, and this program has provided a multitude of experiences,

knowledge, and personal growth. During NUR 310/Global Health, it was eye opening to study

and research different health care systems, and nursing duties in other countries. The information

obtained from this course, allowed me to strengthen my understanding of other countries, and to

be open and understanding to other health care systems. My personal growth as a nurse and as a

professional has just continued to strengthen throughout all the courses provided in this program.

NUR 400/Nursing Leadership allowed me to learn about the different types of leaderships, and

what groups work best with those. After learning this information, I was able to identify what

type of leader I am, what type of leadership I like to work under and how I can better lead and

help others both patients and coworkers.

SWOT ANALYSIS

SWOT is an represents Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (Carlson,

2018). A SWOT analysis allows one to examine all four categories about oneself to create a plan

to achieve goals (Carlson, 2018). After completing the nine program graduate competencies, I

have obtained the strengths of leadership, being a better advocate, and being able to apply

education to everyday experiences. Some personal weaknesses relating to these program

graduate competencies, would be not giving courses my full attention because of other

responsibilities, and the population of patients I work with is limited. Opportunities are

circumstances or offers that come available to people, and it will help lead down a pathway

(Carlson, 2018). Some opportunities related to the program graduate competencies would be that

after completion, obtain a higher position at my place of employment, become a preceptor or

nurse mentor to others, and provide better patient outcomes. Threats are can be internal or

external factors that may cause slowed or stopped progress in the overall goals (Carlson, 2018).

Sometimes weaknesses can be also considered threats, and in my scenario this is true. As stated

above, one of my weaknesses is having other responsibilities outside of school and this has

become a threat as well because taking on too many other responsibilities had slowed my

progress in this journey. Another threat, that has appeared has been the global pandemic of

COVID 19. This is considered a threat because it has stopped both my clinical experiences

during this course work, thankfully alternative options were made available.

PROGRAM GRADUATE COMPETENCIES

Goal one states, “Integrate general education knowledge, skills, and aptitudes to advance

nursing education and growth in professional practice”. Starting this program, I was required to

take a NUR 300/ RN to BSN transition course which I found to be extremely helpful. This

course helped be with growth in my professional practice. During this course, I researched

nursing philosophies and was able to start to develop my own based on personal beliefs and

values. Now that I am in the final course NUR 460/Nursing Capstone, I can look back and reflect

on the start of this journey and see how far I have come. During my final course of this program,

I was asked to look back on my original nursing philosophy and see if my philosophy and beliefs

still align. Although, most of my nursing philosophy still aligned, there is so much more

reasoning, education, and experiences behind why I am the nurse I am today. Both of these

courses have allowed me to advance my education as a nurse and allowed me to see how truly

far I have grown.

Competency two states “Demonstrate leadership skills to promote patient safety and the

delivery of high-quality healthcare”. In NUR 400/Nursing leadership, I gained knowledge of the

different types of leaders and leaderships. I was able to research and identify myself most closely

with a transformational leader, as well as relate to the Drucker’s theory of leadership. My type of

leadership closely relates to Drucker’s theory because in this theory it is said to be a participatory

leadership. Drucker felt as though staff participation was and I important in planning, creating

goals and decision making (Finkelman, 2016, p. 8). Once recognizing what type of leader, I am, I

am now able to provide patients with high quality healthcare because I can be confident in my

leadership skills and delegations.

Number three states “Apply skills of inquiry, analysis, and information literacy to support

evidence-based professional nursing practice.” NUR 340/ Nursing research has helped me to

complete this course competency. Evidence base practice can be described as the process of

collecting, processing, and implementing research to improve patient outcomes, clinical practice,

and work environment (Chrisman, Jordan, Davis, & Williams, 2014). During this course, I was

taught how to examine research as well as truly interpret the results.

Competency four states “Integrate information management technology to improve

patient outcomes.” This competency was completed with the help of NUR 410/Nursing

Informatics. During this course, I learned many ways that technology plays a vital role in our

patient care and outcomes. My current place of employment was in the process of recreating a

new hand electronic hand off tool for our perioperative area. Competency number three can also

be correlated into this experience because we were able to collect our own research, apply the

evidence-based research to use technology to improve safe patient hand offs.

Competency five states “Advocate for patients and the nursing profession with regard to

healthcare policy at the local, state, national, and global levels.” This competency was completed

throughout all the courses. Throughout the coursework completed, I was able to continue to

advocate for my patients daily and help provide education to them for them to make informed

decisions about their health. NUR 420/Nursing Policy allowed me to gain information about the

different levels of that policies must go through, how to be an advocate, as well as how to help

patient engagement. Although, I feel as though I completed this competency, I do feel there is a

gap in this one. I would say the gap is related to just missing that in person experience of

witnessing more of the higher up levels of policy making and laws. I feel confident in being an

advocate for my patients and myself, I would just like to experience more of what happens at a

state, national or even a global level.

Competency six states “Direct patient-centered care through advocacy, interprofessional

communication, collaboration, and delegation.” This competency was met by a few different

courses I would say. NUR 400/ Nursing Leadership has taught me so much and has helped me

really grow as a nurse. As a nurse, it is so important to be able to communication effectively as

well and delegate and collaborate with others. During the NUR 400, I was able to recognize the

type of leader that I am and recognize that I am confident enough to delegate tasks to the

appropriate staff. A few of the courses I have taken have also required group projects which

required myself and others to communicate and collaborate to get the project done.

Competency seven states “Integrate health promotion and disease prevention practices to

positively impact the delivery of healthcare to diverse populations.” NUR 320/Health

Assessment and NUR 310/Global Health were utilized to help my complete this competency.

During NUR 320, I gained knowledge about diverse populations and how to create a care plan
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specific to those patients. NUR 310 allowed me to broaden my understanding of different

countries and their health care systems or lack thereof. Now, I have a much better respect and

understanding for people in other areas of the world, and how or why they might not care

adequately for their health conditions. Another course that has been immensely helpful in

completing this competency would be SPA 135/Spanish for healthcare workers. Not only has

this course taught me the basics of Spanish, but it has also taught my cultural considerations to

apply to my patient care of Hispanic populations.

Competency eight states “Practice professional nursing within an ethical framework.”.

SOC 214/ Ethical Issues in Health Care helped me to complete this competency. During this

course, I was able to learn about different ethical issues that could arise. Ethical issues have a

significant role in nursing not only regarding our patients but also within ourselves, and our

coworkers.

Competency nine states “Demonstrate lifelong learning that empowers personal and professional

growth.”. All the courses taken throughout this program have allowed me to complete this

competency. While first starting this program, I was a new nurse just getting started in the

nursing field and developing into my own person. I have gained so many skills, obtained so

much knowledge and grown so much personally and professionally throughout this program.

GOALS

During this course, I was asked to develop some course goals that I wanted to achieve. Some of

my goals for this course were to be grow as a leader and team member, as well as grow as a

nurse. I was able to achieve my goals throughout this course. During this course, I was able to

grow as a leader and team member by doing a team project. This project was a bit tough but

helped me learn new ways to communicate due to everything being online, and all team
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members having a busy schedule. The SWOT analysis really helped me grow as a nurse because

I now have a tool that I can use to help examine myself or work systems around me. This

assignment made me really take the time to examine my strengths versus my weakness and what

kind of opportunities I was missing out on due to threats.

In conclusion, the journey to my BSN degree has been a rewarding one. I was able to

complete all competencies, and only experienced very few gaps along the way. The knowledge,

personal and professional growth, I have developed over this course work has left a lasting

impression. These courses have encouraged me and reminded me that in the field of nursing

education is never ending and should be pursued in order to provide safe patient outcomes.
PCG REFLECTION 7

References

Carlson, K. (2018, August 30). A SWOT analysis for your nursing career. Retrieved December

04, 2020, from https://www.nurse.com/blog/2016/07/19/a-swot-analysis-for-your-nursing-

career/

Chrisman, J., Jordan, R., Davis, C., & Williams, W. (2014, July/August). Exploring evidence

based practice research: Nursing made Incredibly Easy. Retrieved December 04, 2020, from

https://journals.lww.com/nursingmadeincrediblyeasy/fulltext/2014/07000/exploring_evidence_b

ased_practice_research.3.aspx

Finkelman, A. (2016). Effective Leadership: Transformational Leadership and Innovation. In

Leadership and management for nurses: core competencies for quality care

 (3rd ed., pp. 8 –14). Julie Levin Alexander.