Question

What student nurses think about their experiences at the emergency department?

How professionally or personally student nurses learn and grow to become a "good nurse" with their experiences at the emergency department?

Answer 1

What student nurses think about their experiences at the emergency department?

Answer:

The student nurses think about their experiences at the emergency department as a strong turning point in their nursing training which provides them practical exposure to situations of high risk and triage enhancing their professional and emotional learning and growth.

1.The student nurses think that the experience in the emergency department provides them exposure to a lot of highly complex medical conditions and emergencies which require highest levels of nursing careskills, critical thinking and problem solving skills.They learn to handle situations of high risk and triage effectively based on these experiences,making them professionally competent and enhancing their self-confidence.The emergency exposure provides opportunity for learning through observation and imitation.

2.The student nurses also perceive the exposure in the emergency department as the opportunity to apply the theoretical nursing knowledge in practice and get practical exposure of the nursing work processes under highly stressful conditions and high pressure situations.

3.The student nurse also is aware that working in the emergency department will help to learn team coordination skills as the patient care in emergency requires multidisciplinary team coordination which is necessary to provide quality patient care

4.The experience in the emergency department is emotionally intense and provides a practical exposure to maintaining emotional fortitude and calm in trying situations at the same time applying the theoretical knowledge of the use of emergency drugs like vasopressors and adrenaline, defibrillators in the patients correctly in order to save their lives.

5.The student nurses also think that the experiences in the emergency department provides them a practical exposure of Implementing the effective communication skills with the patients and their families facing critical health conditions ,acute painful conditions and life threatening situations.It also provides for nurse mentor/perceptor based learning experiences.

6.. The student nurse perceives the experience at the emergency department as that of providing insight into the organisation systems and their functioning including the understanding of the organisational setup ,the management ,the administration,records maintenance,legal implications and the control of the emergency units

7]There are emotional aspects to the experiences in the emergency department. While some student nurses may experience feelings of fear, nervousness, intense emotions and difficulty in coping up with death issues leading to self reflection of life; others think about this experience as an identification with the nursing profession experiencing personal satisfaction through providing patient help and care.They also experience gratification of professional collaboration.

How professionally or personally student nurses learn and grow to become a good nurse with their experiences at the emergency department?

Answer:

A good nurse is described as a nursing professional who is professionally efficient and competent and at the same time compassionate, empathetic,,respectful, responsible, calm headed with good problem solving skills,committed to patient advocacy and capable of rendering effective nursing care.

The atmosphere in the emergency department is such that it provides rigorous mental exercise and practice for the various aspects of nursing such as critical thinking, problem solving, effective communication, patient care and patient advocacy, delivering care through compassion and empathy,facing of life and death matters, application of nursing ethics, application of theoretical knowledge to practical situations,culturally diverse patients and thus  is one of the  richest nursing experience.

The following are the ways in which student nurses can learn and grow to become a 'good nurse' based on the experiences in the emergency department ,both professionally and personally.

1.The experience of the student nurses in the emergency department provides the exposure and opportunity for the application of the theoretical knowledge into practice thereby strengthening professional competence and provides an opportunity for learning through practical work situations,observation and imitation, thereby increasing their learning and professional growth

2. The experiences at the emergency department stimulates and strengthens  the critical thinking processes and problem solving skills in the student nurses which is the basis for the clinical decision making and helps them exercise the rational thinking processes in order to come to a nursing diagnosis and perform the correct nursing interventions.

3. Having exposure to emergency situations helps the student  nurses to take quick correct decisions and life saving measures during the care of their patients leading to their greater efficiency at the saving human life.The ability to to take care of medical emergencies contributes to their professional and personal learning and growth.They learn to handle situations of higher risk and triage effectively based on these experiences making them professionally competent and enhancing their self-confidence

4.The management of the emergency situations also requires a lot of team coordination, The nursing experience at the emergency department plays a key role in the teamwork building capacity, and team co-ordination skills which influences both personal and professional life of the student nurses positively

5.Dealing with emergency patients involves the management of patients in critical life threatening conditions/ acute painful conditions ,The student nurses during their experience in the emergency learn and foster effective,compassionate communication skills and learn to provide nursing care with empathy. They also get exposure to various aspects of nursing ethics and their practical applications. All this contributes to a high level of effective learning.

6.The experiences at the emergency department provide exposure to all the disciplines of health care and help the student nurses to understand their inclination for particular subject and choose their area of interest /specialised practice and post graduation.

7..The experience at the emergency department provides practical exposure to situations of risk and helps in prioritising triage ,performing new techniques, performing under pressure, adapting to rapidly changing environment ,integrating theoretical knowledge into practice ,collaborating with multidisciplinary team and thus provides the highest level of professional and personal enrichment and learning opportunity for student nurses.

8,The experience at the emergency department provides an understanding of the value of human life and its temporariness.It also helps them to understand the value of the correct nursing action and Irreversible damage on wrong action there by strengthening the understanding of nursing knowledge, nursing processes, nursing interventions, nursing ethics.The experiences  help the student nurses to reflect on the life positively and grow as an individual both personally and professionally.

9.The exposure to the emergency situations and the experiences helped the student nurses to understand the importance of a nursing leadership and management,time management, understand the administrative roles that nurse play. The exposure also provide the nurse knowledge and insight into understanding of organisational setup and procedures, legal systems and ethical matters.

10.The experiences of exposure to various trying the situations helps the student nurses to develop the the capabilities of delivering culturally competent care in trying situations and understanding the importance of culturally competent care and its practical applications in matters of life and death and acute emergencies

Conclusion: Thus the experiences at emergency department contributes to the mental, psychological,emotional,social,ethical, professional and personal growth and learning of the student nurses helping them to gain the competencies for a sound nursing practice thereby helping them to become good nurses.