This has been my first semester in nursing school with clinical time. Although it has been cut short with in person clinicals, I am still participating in patient care online through virtual experiences. In the short time that I was in the hospital setting I have seen improvements in my communication skills.
Reflecting back on my first day on the unit I was so nervous. I remember feeling uncertain on how to talk to my patient and there was a lot of awkward silence. I do not think that in this case the silence was therapeutic. I was uncomfortable communicating with my patients early on this semester. I have seen through each patient I work with how my communication is increasing. I am less nervous and uncomfortable. I try to be friendly and positive; I want to talk to them and let them know my job is to provide care for them. I have seen through relationships with some of my patients that since I try my best to provide good care for them and actually talk with them while I am in there, that they enjoy when I come back to their room. Having a patient happy when I am in the room is a great feeling to have. I have seen my nonverbal communication skills develop during my clinical experience. I have been taught new skills in this class and other classes that I can actively apply to my clinical work. I try to make a point to make good eye contact, use a soothing tone of voice, and maintain an arm’s length distance. I make it a point to explain to the patients what I am doing so that when I perform an assessment or administer medications, they are not concerned why I am in their physical space. Verbalizing what I am doing or what I plan to do is also a way to keep the patients involve in their care. This offers them the time to decide what type of care they want if they want me to do something or not.
I want to keep improving in my skills. I want to have confidence with new tasks in my practice. That has been a challenge for me this year. I know I am capable of new tasks but each time I get an unfamiliar task I get a little nervous. Then after the task is completed, I look back and wonder what I was nervous about. I talked to my instructor about this and she told me that as a nurse I will never know everything, there is always going to be an unfamiliar task. The important thing is being calm and being able to think through it and perform. I want to grow in my confidence and not get frightened with unfamiliar tasks. I know that I can present myself in a confident manner to my patients, but I want to have that same confidence inside myself. Growing in my skills will allow me to have better nonverbal communication skills. I will sit up straighter and have a strong voice and be confident in the care I am giving.
I would like to grow in my professional vocabulary. I want to increase my knowledge and use of medical terms in appropriate settings. I feel that a strength of mine is being able to explain things to patients in simple terms. I want to work on my knowledge and familiarity with medical terms as I think this will help my reports, care plans, and charting. I have a good memory of remembering words I have heard before, but I cannot always recall their meaning. I think that being more comfortable with medical terms will also help me prepare for the NCLEX.