ePortfolio Assignment

July 1, 2023

Development of Self II NURS-4520-04

Tharini Paramananthan

Alexandrea Dickison

100773743

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 Introduction:

Hi, my name is Alexandrea Dickison and I'm currently in my 4th semester of the Practical Nursing
Program at Durham College. I would describe myself as detail-oriented, compassionate, and
dedicated. I have completed 3 clinical placements including Complex Continuing Care at
Lakeridge Whitby, Maternity and Child at Lakeridge Oshawa, and am currently completing a
medical-surgical rotation at Lakeridge Port Perry. As well I have a ton of experience working as a
Personal/Disability support worker in group homes and long-term care setting. I am hopeful to
have my consolidation placement in the Emergency department of Lakeridge health as I feel my
skillset of being highly adaptable, being a team player and always taking initiative would be a
perfect fit for that environment. My long-term goal is to work as in the emergency department
or in Labour and Delivery. I can be reached via email at alexandrea.dickison@dcmail.ca or
phone at (647)-308-0261 . Thank you for taking the time to review my e Portfolio!

Nursing Philosophy:
My nursing philosophy surrounds maintaining characteristics of compassionate ethical and competent
care for my patients. Honesty and human dignity are of the utmost importance in my future
practice. Merriam-Webster defines honesty as "fairness and straightforwardness of conduct" or
"adherence to the facts". As a nurse it is always important to remember that we are to provide factual
knowledge based care despite what our personal values and beliefs may be. If we are not able to remove
our personal attachment we are able to withdraw from this patients care as all people have the right to
receive congruent care despite their wishes not aligning with your own.

Human dignity is a basic right, all people should be treated with empathy compassion and respect,
especially in there most vulnerable times, when they are unwell and in need of medical attention.
Respecting all people and ensuring they all have their dignity by offering choices, ensuring privacy and
being discrete with medical care in ward rooms.

My nursing philosophy is simple; respect all people, in any and all walks of life and allow them to live,
and die in a way that is meaningful to themselves.

Goals, cover letter and resume:

My career goals are to work in the emergency department or in the mother/baby department. I believe
that I have great experience in a variety of different sectors and have a great skill set to be situated in
these units. My ability to be easily adaptable, compassionate, and have a wide variety of skills makes me
feel as though I will excel in these units. Through my placement in mother/baby I learned a lot and was
able to get right in there completing a lot of patient assessments and teaching with the supervision of
my preceptor and was very confident. I hope to do my consolidation in the emergency department to
further the skills that I have learned throughout my studies. Within 2 years I hope to be working in an
emergency department and become confident in my nursing skills to preform rapid assessments. Within
5 years I hope to be starting a degree program perusing my Bachelor of science in nursing with the hopes
to specialized in critical care and trauma department cases.

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 Quality Assurance:
Practice reflection:
1. How do these changes or experiences impact my practice?
Being at the bedside as a nursing student in semester 4 versus semester 2 is a
very different experience. I have been able to do a lot more nursing skills such as
adjusting IV’s, doing a bladder scan, and administering medications. This has
given me the opportunity to utilize the skills that I have learned in the practice
lab and implement them into practice with the assistance of my professor to
guide me. I was able see first-hand what the nursing staff are doing on a day-to-
day basis, how care is provided, how orders are taken/put in and how staff work
together for patient care.

2. What changed, if anything, in terms of how I do my work?

Being able to change from not semester 2 student doing basic care for patients
and not utilizing nursing specific skills to being able to do more skills each week
has provided a great learning opportunity. I have been able to implement my
knowledge into practice in safe and secure environment with my professor
nearby for guidance and support which ensure my patients safety. By being able
to implement my nursing skills I can prepare myself for what my own career will
look/feel like and know where I need to focus my studying to ensure I am
prepared for the time that I do not have my professor nearby for support and the
safety of my patients is completely my responsibility.

3. What learning opportunities can I identify through my experiences that I can apply
moving forward?
Throughout the remainder of this rotation and my consolidation period I will
work with my professors and nurses on the unit to take all opportunity available
to me. I will sit in on different skills being performed, join on rounds, when
possible, take the as many opportunities as possible to practice and improve my
skills prior to graduation.

4. What areas of my practice need professional development?

As a student I feel all my skills can always be improved. I do not have much
experience and I am not fully confident in my total skill set at this point. I will
continue to study, ask questions, and participate in clinical opportunities as much
and as often as possible to ensure I am prepared for when graduation approach’s
and I am working on my own in the field.

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 Essential Employability Skills:

1) Information Management
Reflection 1 – Information Management
Throughout the nursing program there have been many assignments and papers that require a great
deal of research, data and analysis. Being able to look at the information and apply the knowledge to the
specific area of work and complete correct citations.

Description of EES- Collecting information, utilizing and choosing appropriate technology and resources
to complete an assigned project. Utilizing computer and internet skills proficiently.

Talk about how you have developed the EES in the program- I have completed essays, care plans and
research projects utilizing physical text books, online journals, internet resources and school provided
literature to complete an assignment.

Describe how your artifacts provide evidence that you have developed your EES: Below I have attached
an infographic and health teaching paper completed for Pharmacology course. Through this assignment
I utilized a variety of different research resources, and technology to create the infographic as well as
writing an essay portion.

2) Numeracy
Reflection 2 – Numeracy
Throughout the nursing program it is important to be able to complete medication math 100% correctly
as this can result in medication errors and having your patient become unwell.

Description of EES- completing math equations correctly utilizing proper formulas, data entry, and
calculations to correctly solve the equation.

Talk about how you have developed the EES in the program: Passing the Math class that is a requirement
for Durham College program in the first attempt as well as completing the medication exam for semester
4 placement in order to administer medications.

Describe how your artifacts provide evidence that you have developed your EES:
Below is a copy of my marks from my math course at Durham college displaying a passing overall grade
of 80% in semester 2. I have attached the passing grade from the Pharmacology math exam for semester
3, as well as a Pass for the math exam for semester 4 clinical placement.

3) Interpersonal
Reflection 3 – interpersonal
Working together as a team can be challenging when everyone has a variety of different ideas and values
they would like to try to implement. We are able to work together to collective come up with one valued
piece of work to present as a unified group.

Description of EES: networking, team work, relationship management and developing conflict resolution
skills is always highly important in any field of work and day to day life.

Talk about how you have developed the EES in the program: throughout the nursing program there has
been a great deal of collaboration and team work and assignments. As we are preparing to be a part of

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 the health care team we are required to collaborate effectively with a variety of different people with
different styles of work.

Describe how your artifacts provide evidence that you have developed your EES: I have attached a group
project that was completed in the first semester of the nursing program. This project displays how
despite having a ton of different styles and preferences we can all work together to create a cohesive
project.

Additional Artifacts:

Below is a certificate displaying my dedication to supporting my individuals with developmental

disabilities as awarded employee of the month.

As well as working in a group home for adults with development disabilities, I volunteer within my
organization to put on functions for the individuals such as mixers for meeting new friends, events,
movie nights and BBQ to promote involvement in the community and support their Independence. We
also volunteer at a variety of different organizations such as adopt-a-park where we clean up trash in
parks in our area and feed the need which is a food bank that helps support the Durham region. I also
have the opportunity to help with meals on wheels for our seniors and organize visit days for our
individuals to spend time with some isolated seniors who don’t have much family.

As well as all my volunteer work through my employer I volunteer at my church running youth group
events and organizing picnics and outings for the congregation to enjoy.

DOS ePortfolio

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