Introduction
Whether in life generally or a professional setting, personal and continuous improvement is necessary. Improvement in relationships, health, finances, spirituality, lifestyle, and career is what many people seek to make life better. Continuous improvement is critical to any growth that a professional may envision. This continuous improvement may take various forms including training, promotions, change of professions or careers, doing research, acquiring, and disposing of habits and characters that may be hindering one’s ascension to greatness (Janes & Lundy, 2009, p. 45).
Career growth makes one of the many objectives individuals pursue. Stagnation in one level of a career ladder is not encouraging and does little to improve someone’s personal development. However, career growth does not come easily. Individuals need to make drastic continuous improvements on both personal and career terms so that the improvements are reflected in their work.
One of the professions that require continuous improvement is nursing. Traditionally nursing is viewed as a complementary profession to medicine. However, nowadays, nursing has evolved and developed into an independent field where professionally trained nurses help in planning, assessing, and implementing healthcare. Nursing involves taking care of sick people including invalids and convalescents and helping them achieve optimal health. Nursing is available and helps communities and individuals from conception to death.
Professionals in the healthcare field including nurses are required to undergo continuous training to update their skills and ensure they keep a high standard of work ethic and practice (Janes & Lundy, 2009, p. 54). Continuous improvement in nursing especially will help nurses keep up with the trends in the profession while ensuring growth that comes with experience. According to Kyrkjebø & Hanestad , its critically important for nursing students and professionals to learn problem-solving techniques and the importance of undergoing continuous quality improvement processes(2002, p. 2). They further add that observation of the above will help nursing professionals to fully understand the healthcare system, their roles and how to work within the system to ensure its improvement and better service delivery to patients’ needs(Kyrkjebø & Hanestad, 2002, p.2).
Continuous improvement in nurses touches on the roles and competencies that they need to perform optimally in their work. It also involves the leadership roles that nurses will take together with the education that they already have and any other form of education that they need to undertake to stay competitive. Other areas of improvement are the values and strengths or qualities that nursing professionals need to have. These come in handy when observing the ethics related to the job as well as the pressures that are associated with it. As in any other profession, nursing has its challenges that can only be met with updated ways of dealing with them they include
Roles skills and competencies
Nursing role in 5 years
Nurses’ roles include helping people achieve optimal health mainly through curative medicine or practices. Nurses work hand in hand with doctors when playing their roles. However, that may change in the next five years. The dynamism associated with this profession will ensure growth to an extent that a nurse will be able to provide effectively the required assistance to patients without a lot of input from the doctor (Watson, 2008, p. 76). The nursing role that will be most preferable in the next five years will be in leading the adoption of preventive healthcare practices. The traditional nursing role therefore will shift from taking care of people who are already sick to that of educating people and helping them implement practices that promote preventive care.
For one to be successful in this role he/she will need to be an educator. The role therefore will be that of a community educator nurse in charge of preventive medicine. A community educator nurse will need to identify the areas that and communities that need to be addressed to ensure preventive healthcare succeeds. Besides education, collection and analysis of data will form part of a community educator nurse. This will help in identification of trends and formulation remedial education where necessary.
Knowledge skills and competencies
Basic nursing knowledge that is obtained through nursing training will be critical to the success of this role. This knowledge is referred to as professional knowledge that will require the nurse to be well versed in areas such as microbiology, anatomy, and pharmacology (Watson, 2008, p. 87). The knowledge must also include thorough understanding of the nursing theory, practice, and the underlying values of the profession. Perhaps the most critical of this knowledge will be improved knowledge that will require the nurse to know the system, the processes and the people and the involved the psychology of the system. An educator nurse will only succeed if he/she has the medical background that all nurses have. The advice that he will be disseminating will largely depend on the medical education he has.
Presentation skills will also come in handy. It is important to note that the nurse will be holding public meetings with residents of particular places hence the need to acquire the skills. The good language that is not complicated for the common citizen and an outgoing nature will play a big part in the success of this role. Additionally, the educator nurse will need to possess leadership competencies bearing in mind he will be leading a team of other nurses or professionals who will help with community education.
Leadership to the nursing profession at a local or global level
The leadership that is needed in the nursing profession is not very varied from what any leadership in the healthcare sectors demands. In commerce, consumers are increasingly educated, precise, and more demanding. The situation in healthcare is no different. A strong leader here will therefore need to effectively confront and sort issues such as increasing consumer demands, contradicting priorities, scarce resources and sometimes, dysfunctional healthcare system (Feldman et al, 2008, p. 22). Effective leadership therefore will entail a deep understanding of the system, a clear and convincing vision for the profession, and the ability to connect with other people who will be stakeholders in the system.
Dedicated leadership is what a community educator nurse will be needed to give. The nurse will need to embrace the problems and acknowledge that the problems exist. However the most important leadership move he will have to make will entail encouragement of more consumer or community involvement, appreciating and making use of the available medical technologies, and the acknowledgment of the role of nursing students in the system. The leader will have to reinforce the fact that healthcare is a priority whose role no one can ignore. The community educator nurse in other words will adopt a wholesome approach to the issues that will be ailing the system as well as those that are a plus. Courageous leadership will be what the nurse will need to pursue especially in light of the problems facing the profession and the absence of leaders who do not want to take that path. Courage will help the nurse to openly implement and persuade people to accept drastic changes, sacrifice, loss, and growth.
The above leadership approach will mainly benefit the local community where the nurse will be based. To ensure the benefits reach an international audience, the leaders will need to encourage research on various issues affecting the profession and subsequent sharing of the findings. Additionally, he will have to collaborate with other organizations of the same nature locally and internationally so that they can learn from the apparent successful model, he will have implemented.
Advanced nursing education fit in your future
The dynamism of the healthcare system mentioned earlier brings out complications that need advanced ways of tackling. While some of the challenges and issues affecting the sector and the profession can sufficiently be dealt with with the education nurses receive, it is important to encourage nursing professionals to pursue advanced education (Munhall, 2011, p. 65). Advanced education has the advantage of being specialized and focusing on a problem fully. The knowledge and skills that will be gained through advanced education will be critical in the success of any leadership model that the leader nurse will propose or implement. Advanced education in another word will complement any positive step that the leaders and the team will take to improve the system and the profession. On a more personal note, it will help one ascend to the pole position easily hence being able to advance his career and implement his vision.
Three values in your future nursing role
Every profession has its core values that are derived from the common values that are normally emphasized by society (Munhall, 2011, p. 70). These values however get a little specialized according to the profession that is adopting them. The needs and requirements of a profession like nursing will help shape the values that will be adopted by the professionals and how they will be applied in practice. Among the values that will/ may help an educator nurse will be patience, humility, and respect for authority.
Given that the role will entail meeting many people with different characteristics, the nurse must have patience. Consumers and the people whom they will be meeting will have varied ways of addressing or presenting their problems or views. Some no doubt will be irritating and may sometimes become personal. Patience will ensure the nurse does not overreact to such situations in order to maintain a good rapport with his clients.
Some of the activities he will be doing will involve stooping low to deliver information or services. If the nurse will not be humble enough to stoop to his clients’ levels, the delivery of such goals will be difficult.
In any leadership structure, there are bound to be checks and balances. The nurse will be out to perform his duties as described in his appointment letter. However, it is important that he acknowledge the role of the authorities. Sometimes, authorities will be making some very unpopular decisions that may touch on the core of his work. Seeking redress with decorum will go a long way in portraying one’s maturity and professional growth.
Personal and professional strengths
Every human being is unique. Despite undergoing similar training, different people and nurses for this matter have different strengths. These signature strengths greatly help professional nurses in their work to ensure they achieve their career objectives. These strengths can fall into one or more of the following categories; cognitive, interpersonal emotional and self-control and civic.
As a community educator nurse, one will need a number of strengths that will help him overcome the challenges associated with the job.
Temperance
The nurse will need the above strength in his day-to-day performance of duties. Temperance will greatly help in reinforcing self-control while ensuring he displays prudence, humility, and modesty. Temperance will also help in ensuring patience that together with humility were identified as some of the values a successful community educator nurse will possess. The strength will also help the professional uphold professionalism when dealing with clients and ensure that minor conflicts that may hinder service delivery are avoided.
Knowledge acquisition
No medical professional can do without this critical strength. The strength to acquire knowledge fast will be enhanced by possession of creativity open-mindedness, good judgment, curiosity, and love for continuous learning. In fact, this strength will greatly determine if the nurse will succeed in the continuous improvement programs or not. The willingness to learn has to come from within hence the need to ensure that one has that will for him to possess this strength.
Other strengths that will be crucial to a community nurse’s success include courage and other strengths that help human beings find satisfaction and meaning in one’s life. Courage entails bravery, perseverance, and zest. These strengths will help nursing professionals to overcome challenging situations that are numerous in the profession. The challenges may be physical or emotional and poison of courage will help a lot in addressing them. Besides there are other strengths like capacity to love, ability to commit, appreciate dispense fairness and show leadership. These form part of the broader strengths that human beings have and that sometimes a nurse doing community work must possess or work towards possessing. The nurse may not be endowed with all the strengths but it is important to use the knowledge strength that is very basic to improve on the ones that one does not have.
Weaknesses
More often than not, nurses will find themselves in difficult situations where they experience dilemmas on whether to attend to their needs or those of the client. For instance, it may be past working hours but a patient needs extra care and no other nurse is available. Normally humanity prevails and the nurse can continue working for the good of the patient. Sometimes, some nurses volunteer to work for the good of their patients and clients. Such kind of weakness can normally be taken advantage of by the clients when they know that a community nurse can easily be manipulated to serve them.
Conclusion
To achieve the goals, a community nurse needs support from both the people he serves and the leadership. Leadership ensures a conducive environment exists and the right requirements for success are availed. Continuous development can only be realized through a communal effort. It is therefore important to involve all stakeholders.
References
Feldman, H. R. (2008). Nursing Leadership: A Concise Encyclopedia. New York: Springer Publishing Company.
Janes, S. & Lundy, S.K (2009). Community health nursing: caring for the public’s health. New York: Jones Bartlette Learning.
Kyrkjebø, M.J & Hanestad, R.B. (2002). Issues and Innovation in Nursing Education: Personal improvement project in nursing education: learning methods and tools for continuous quality improvement in nursing practice. Bergen: Blackwell Publishing.
Munhall, L. P. (2011). Nursing Research: A Qualitative Perspective. Ontario: Jones Bartlette Learning.
Watson, J. (2008). Nursing: the philosophy and science of caring. Colorado: University press of Colorado.