Lesson 8

In class we discussed professional growth in nursing.   Many nurses do not have a career focus. They see nursing as a job.  Because of their lack of career focus, the do not seek advancement in their jobs, do not try to continue on with their career, and therefore have no long term goals.  There should be some form of career management where performance appraisals are done. By having a meeting with your manager on at least a yearly basis, nurses can see areas that they can improve themselves, make some long term goals, and hopefully aspire to do more with their career then just stop dead in their tracks.

We discussed the change in nursing.  When the economy changes there is nursing shortages etc.  One thing that we discussed was how generations such as the baby boomers could affect staffing and scheduling due to their increased medical need. Staffing in nursing is somewhat complicated. It Is also moving toward an older population because nurses are staying employed into their elder years.  Staffing for nurses requires expertise care 24/7, hard to balance work and socializing due to the required hours. There can be a lot of turnover with nursing which at times can be detrimental to a department in regards to finding a replacement and re-training. 

Interviewing was also discussed. We went over mistakes an interviewee can make. How not preparing for an interview, not having questions to ask or bad mouthing last employer.  Overall I thought these were fabulous tips seeing as how I have been the culprit to some of these errors.