Running head: FINAL ANALYSIS

Tim Efremidis
Final Analysis
Bon Secours Memorial College of Nursing
NUR 4142: Synthesis of Nursing Practice
Mrs. Wilkins

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2
Final Analysis

As I conclude my tenure as a nursing student I reflect back on all of the

experiences I have had throughout this time. These experiences include nursing courses,
clinical experiences, as well interactions with nursing faculty and my peers. The sum of
these experiences has contributed to my growth in knowledge, skills, and attitudes
regarding nursing as a profession. As I continue my journey in nursing, I will continue to
grow in a holistic manner, so that I am fulfilling my mind, body, and spirit in a way that
they will allow me to flourish as a young nurse.
Early on, I felt that nursing courses and prerequisite courses were just obstacles I
had to overcome in order to begin the real nursing courses. In my mind, I wasnt really
a nursing student until I had started an IV, administered medications, completed an
assessment, and even performed CPR on a patient. My idea of nursing had become a list
of tasks that would signify my entrance into nursing, as a student. As I progressed into
the program, I realized that the early courses of learning about nursing theory were very
beneficial in understanding why I chose to enter this field. The theoretical courses, such
as NUR 1100 and NUR 2101 were courses that taught students how to handle various
issues in nursing. These issues included dealing with the ethics and morals of nursing,
cultural sensitivity, as well as many other hot topics in nursing. These courses did not
teach my how to start an IV, but instead how to explain to a patient how this IV would
help their overall health; these courses did not teach me how to administer medications,
but instead how to explain to patients how the medications would help them feel better;
these courses did not teach my how to assess a patient, but instead how to assess a patient
before you even introduce yourself to them; and finally these courses did not teach me

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how to perform CPR, but instead how to communicate with the family when the CPR had
been unsuccessful in reviving their loved one.
As I began what I consider the difficult part of the program, which was the
semester of Adult Nursing Science I, I quickly realized that what I was learning was not
just information I would have to replicate on an exam; this was information I would have
to carry with me for the rest of my nursing career. Everything I was learning would
contribute to how good of a nurse I would become. Learning new skills was a very
exciting part of being a nursing student. I think having a didactic course and a practicum
course correlated was extremely helpful in both growth in knowledge and skills. As we
learned new body systems, we had the ability to care for patients with illnesses and
diseases in those body systems. Instead of just learning about heart disease, I was able to
understand what a patient with congestive heart failure looked like and how we treated
him or her during an acute exacerbation. The following semester of Adult Nursing
Science II was very much like the preceding semester. They were both difficult and
provided new information that would help me grow as a strong nurses generalist.
As my senior year began, I realized that courses were much more specific and
focused on special populations. During the first semester, we were learning about caring
for childbearing women, children, and the geriatric population. By this point, we were
expected to have a strong foundation of nursing practice and be able to apply it to these
special populations. My general attitude about nursing changed in a way that I realized
that caring for these populations, in the most general sense, was no different than caring
for the general adult population. There was certainly additional knowledge that
contributed to provided the best care possible, but we were essentially assessing and

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treating patients. As we completed this semester I felt a lot more comfortable in treating
these populations. We had numerous clinical practicum opportunities to care for
childbearing women and children. Our geriatric knowledge was limited to the classroom,
but we had many opportunities throughout Adult Nursing Science I & II practicums to
care for geriatric patients. Furthermore, nursing research helped us to understand how
valuable research is to what we do.
Our final semester has been a culmination of everything we have learned. During
our synthesis course, we are able to review case studies that allow us to gather all of our
knowledge and prepare a care plan for a specific patient. During clinical immersion we
have had the opportunity to get our feet wet as new nurse practitioners. Clinical
immersion has given me the opportunity to learn how to provide direct care to patients, as
we all collaborate with the interprofessional team. I have learned that communication is
the key to anything and everything we do in nursing. Without good communication we
are providing incomplete care and creating a safety risk for every patient. One of the
most valuable things we establish during our final year is that we begin to identify
professional mentors. These mentors may include nurses during our clinical experiences,
our immersion preceptors, and more commonly our own nursing faculty. These
mentorships will serve our personal growth as much as our professional growth. Having
a mentor will provide me, personally, the comfort of knowing there is someone out there
that I can turn to when I have a difficult question.
As I transition into my career as a new nurse, there are several areas I will need to
improve on. I know that I will need more experience in caring for patients in order to
become comfortable in providing nursing care without the fear of making a mistake. As I

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continue to grow into the field, I will become more confident in my clinical decisions and
recommendations. The other important factor that I need to continue my growth in is
communication. More specifically, I need to become confident in interprofessional
communication. As nurses, we often become intimidated when speaking to physicians
and I am certainly no exception. During clinical immersion I began feeling much more
comfortable and prepared as I interacted with physicians. I realized that the biggest key
was providing a good SBAR and establishing a trusting relationship with the physicians.
As I become more comfortable in caring for patients, I believe that my ability to
communicate well will also improve. In summary, my goal is to continue to learn and
seek ways to improve my knowledge, skills, and attitudes related to nursing care and the
nursing profession in general.