Enhancing Nursing Assistant Roles Through Skills Growth and Reflection
Reflective practice is a crucial component in the professional growth of nursing assistants, enabling them to evaluate their experiences, recognise strengths, and identify areas for improvement. By systematically reflecting on patient interactions and clinical scenarios, nursing assistants can enhance their communication, critical thinking, and technical skills. However, translating these reflections into a structured academic format can be challenging. This is where assignment writing help proves beneficial—providing guidance on research, structure, and presentation to ensure assignments meet academic standards while showcasing personal and professional development.
10 Years | MSc
As a nursing assistant, I provide healthcare and support to patients in a medical facility. A nursing assistant is a professional who aids, observes, and treats patients. Within the role, I act as a caregiver and perform several tasks such as communicating to patients, recording their details, and supporting them in their health and illness. The main duties and responsibilities are as under:
Providing care to patients: The main responsibility of the nursing assistant is to efficiently care for patients and provide them with emotional support. Within the job role duties include an emphasis on patient hygiene, safety, and nutrition, aiding patients in daily activities like bathing, eating, and grooming. It also includes helping them with random activities such as getting out of bed, undertaking self-care activities and so more (Blay and Roche, 2020). As a nursing assistant, my duties also include adjusting the height of the bed and removing barriers.
Maintaining patient records: As a nursing assistant, my job role includes keeping records of patient details such as contact information, medical history, and other medication details so that healthcare experts can provide quality medical care. My duties are accurately documenting information about patients, storing them securely, recording observations for future reference, updating patient charts and records, keeping paperwork up-to-date as well as communicating important patient information to the healthcare team.
Monitoring vital Signs: My job role includes conducting a physical examination of the patient and monitoring vital signs like respiratory rate, temperature, and pulse rate for identification of health condition (Abrahamson et al., 2020). In addition, my work includes reporting major changes in patients to healthcare staff for further treatment.
Setting up and maintaining medical equipment: As a nursing assistant my job role includes preparing and effectively setting up medical equipment for efficient treatment of the patient. I ensure the proper functioning of the equipment as well as aid the healthcare staff with the use of medical devices. In addition, within the boundaries of my job role, I also coordinate with technicians in the case of failure of equipment.
Communicate with patient and their families: My duties as a nursing assistant include effectively communicating with the patient and their families or caregivers to build their trust and influence patients to share their concerns. By effectively communicating with the patient I help them to understand forthcoming procedures and treatment (Nursing Assistant Duties, 2024). My duties include acknowledging the emotions of patients at different stages of treatment, recommending home-care instructions, and encouraging patients to progress in their health.
The adherence to the standard to perform the job role effectively promotes the best practices in the healthcare sector. Within the role of nursing assistant, it is important to work according to the set standard which is as under:
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In the role of nursing assistant, the values, beliefs, and experiences play a crucial role that leads to impact the working practices. My values include human dignity and empathy. As a nursing professional, I always give preference to treating the patient with kindness so they are effectively able to engage them emotionally. It leads to impact my working practices as it aids me in knowing more about the patient and their current situation (Gassas and Salem, 2022). An engaged patient always discloses all their details which is helpful in further and rapid treatment. Values of mine related to empathy enable the patient to actively support and contribute during the process of treatment.
My belief within the job role of nursing assistant includes ethically doing work. While working I always follow all rules, guidance, and principles related to the nursing role, which aids me to work in the best manner. For instance, I always treat all patients equally and with respect as a result I can satisfy all patients and their family members while providing the best care.
At my workplace, I experience that effective communication significantly affects my working practices. With the help of this skill, I was able to develop therapeutic relations with patients as well as family members so that able to address their healthcare concerns and needs. I experience that lack of communication leads to stopping the information as a result unable to engage with customers and effectively practice my work.
Reflective practice is a vital aspect of professional development, mainly in service-oriented fields. It refers to the capability to reflect on one`s actions so that effectively able to engage in the procedure of continuous learning (Olmos-Ochoa et al, 2021). For example, at the workplace while assisting a patient I find difficulty in communicating with the patient as the patient is disabled, he can`t able to listen things properly as a result it is difficult for me to communicate with the person. This leads to several barriers while performing my job role. During this process, I self-evaluate and self-examine myself.
During the treatment of the patient, due to reflective practice, I can learn continuously. By reflecting on my experience with the disabled person, I recognize the areas for improvement as well as develop strategies to address them. In this context, I used my problem-solving skills as a result I used gestures and body language to express my words and communicate with the patient. During the action, reflective practice allows me to learn from my experience and aids me in applying this learning to future situations. In addition, it leads to enhancing the quality of service as by regularly reflecting on performance, I can identify lack areas and by taking corrective action strive to enhance my services.
Reflective practice plays a vital role in improving professional performance. Engagement in the reflective practice, an individual can effectively evaluate their experiences, and recognize areas for enhancement (Sherwood et al, 2023.). Reflective practice leads to improved problem-solving skills. For example, in the role of nursing assistant dealing with people who can`t listen is challenging. With the help of reflecting on the challenges, I can develop better strategies to aid in dealing with similar situations in the future, results lead to enhanced ways of working. Moreover, reflecting practice aids me in identifying my strengths and weaknesses, this can assist me to emphasize on improving my strengths, and addressing weaknesses leads to help in enhancing service quality. For instance, time management is one of my weaknesses correspondingly, it makes it difficult for me to manage my time while caring for multiple patients. With the help of reflective practice, I identified my lack area and by taking corrective action such as scheduling my tasks according to the patient. This leads to making me remain calm under pressure and adjust to changing situations proportionately enhancing my ways of working.
Self-evaluation refers to a process of systematically observing, evaluating, and valuing an individual`s professional actions to enhance them. Self-evaluation of my performance I can effectively know about my strengths as well as areas of improvement (Miller, 2020). For example, with the help of self-evaluation I identified that I am not effectively able to deal with a disabled patient correspondingly I take corrective action like using body language, signs, and symbols to give comfort to the patient. Thus, it will enable me to meet the highest standard as well as furnish safe and effective care to patients.
With the help of self-evaluation, I can effectively know about my growth in the professional field. Moreover, self-analysis of my performance assists me in knowing my area of success as a result in boosting confidence within me, leading to greater job satisfaction and motivation. Self-evaluation is essential as it aids in identifying my strengths proportionately so I can better communicate with supervisors about promotion within the field.
Feedback is a kind of powerful tool. It is an effective way that provide insight into how others perceive the work of an individual. The feedback helps me to know whether I meet the expectations within the workplace or not (Welter and Ensslin, 2022). For example, while dealing with the disabled patient I get feedback from my colleague and seniors that my problem-solving skills are quite good. This feedback boosts my motivation as well as confidence. On the other hand, I get feedback from others that my decision-making skills are not effective as a result it makes me unable to make the right decision at a rapid pace. This leads to making my overall performance dull as the skill is quite essential within the role of nursing assistant. They have to make rapid decisions about patients like informing the condition of the patient's doctor.
In addition, while treating the disabled patient I find difficulty in making records of patient symptoms, and checking files as a result I get feedback from my superior that I should focus on attention to detail skills. Conversely, I also get feedback that my communication, and knowledge of medical terminology are quite effective. Thus, the feedback aids in evaluating my performance in a better way and assists me in developing my skills and knowledge within a set time limit. Feedback helps me to work in a more better and successful manner.
For the nursing assistant and other health and social care workers, professional development is important. During the professional development, various sources support planning and reviewing performance.
The best source for me during planning and learning is my mentors who regularly supervise me and help in develop my skills and knowledge. Another source of support is training that is provided by the professional social and healthcare bodies. Training aids me in developing my skills regarding communication and contact with disabled people so that I can perform my duties in the best and most effective manner (Furnham, Treglown, and Topic, 2021). Training helps me to feel the gap between my strengths and weaknesses effectively and efficiently. Also, I evaluate that getting feedback from professionals and peers works as a support to reviewing my performance. For instance, while communicating with seniors I can find a way to effectively communicate with deaf patients, which assists me in providing the best services.
Reflection aids me in reflecting on my strengths, weaknesses, skills, and knowledge correspondingly enabling me to remain engaged in the process of continuous learning. While performing my work as a nursing assistant and treating a def individual, I find several difficulties and during the process with the help of feedback from seniors, mentors, and colleagues I can get a chance to enhance my lack areas (Tucker, 2020).
I evaluate that my skills, competencies, and knowledge aid me to work according to the set standards. As a nursing assistant, I always ensure that I keep the information of patients confidential. I used all safety measures while looking after a patient such as the use of fresh equipment, the right medication and so more. My communication skill aids me in engaging with the patient kindly, this leads to aiding in curing the patient mentally and emotionally. Moreover, I ensure that treat all patients equally and respectfully.
The feedback plays a crucial role in performing the duties of a nursing assistant. During the period of curing the deaf patient, I get feedback from the mentor, senior, and colleagues regarding effectively treating the patient. I get feedback from my senior that my attention to detail and decision-making skills need to be improved. Also, they give me feedback to use non-verbal cues such as gestures and body language while engaging with a deaf patient. This feedback aids me in effectively treating the patient and knowing about their health condition efficiently.
During the process I evaluate that I need to develop my time management, decision- making and attention to detail skills to perform my duties as a nursing assistant effectively and efficiently. To develop the skills I need to develop a personal development plan. It is a process of developing the skills and knowledge of an individual by taking corrective action within a set time frame (Cottrell, 2021. Following is a personal development plan for enhancing skills and knowledge:
Thus, the personal development plan assists me in proficiently developing my lacking skills.
References
Books and Journals
Abrahamson, K., Fox, R., Roundtree, A. and Farris, K., 2020. Nursing assistants' perceptions of their role in the resident experience.Nursing & health sciences,22(1), pp.72-81.
Bani Issa, W., Al Akour, I., Ibrahim, A., Almarzouqi, A., Abbas, S., Hisham, F. and Griffiths, J., 2020. Privacy, confidentiality, security, and patient safety concerns about electronic health records.International nursing review,67(2), pp.218-230.
Blay, N. and Roche, M.A., 2020. A systematic review of activities undertaken by the unregulated nursing assistant.Journal of Advanced Nursing,76(7), pp.1538-1551.
Cottrell, S., 2021.Skills for success: Personal development and employability. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Furnham, A., Treglown, L. and Topic, D., 2021. Trait emotional intelligence and job performance evaluations: Evidence from self, manager, team and peer ratings.International Journal of Organizational Analysis,29(5), pp.1156-1171.
Gassas, R. and Salem, O., 2022. Factors affecting nurses' professional values: A comprehensive integrative review.Nurse Education Today,118, p.105515.
Miller, J.M., 2020. Reflective practice and health sciences librarians: Engagement, benefits, and barriers.Journal of the Medical Library Association: JMLA,108(1), p.17.
Olmos-Ochoa, T.T., Fenwick, K.M., Ganz, D.A., Chawla, N., Penney, L.S., Barnard, J.M., Miake-Lye, I.M., Hamilton, A.B. and Finley, E.P., 2021. Reflective writing: a tool to support continuous learning and improved effectiveness in implementation facilitators.Implementation science communications,2, pp.1-8.
Quinn, M.M., Markkanen, P.K., Galligan, C.J., Sama, S.R., Lindberg, J.E. and Edwards, M.F., 2021. Healthy aging requires a healthy home care workforce: the occupational safety and health of home care aides.Current Environmental Health Reports,8(3), pp.235-244.
Sherwood, G., Cherian, U.K., Horton-Deutsch, S., Kitzmiller, R. and Smith-Miller, C., 2023. Reflective practices: meaningful recognition for healthy work environments.Nursing Management,30(6).
Tucker, C.A., 2020. Succession planning for academic nursing.Journal of Professional Nursing,36(5), pp.334-342.
Welter, L.M. and Ensslin, S.R., 2022. How do the unintended consequences of performance evaluation systems manifest themselves?Journal of Accounting & Organizational Change,18(4), pp.509-528.
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