Kyle McLaughlin

Professor Goran

Integrating Experience 1

11/4/2020

Wellness Goals Exemplar

At the beginning of the semester, I set the goal to feel connected to a force greater than myself. I felt that this goal was important to me because it would increase my drive, as well as motivation to complete my coursework and feel excited to attend clinical each week. It was important to me to feel that sense of progression from completing my coursework, as with each assignment completed and each exam that passes, I get closer to having the ability to help others in the way in which I have always desired. I felt successful in attaining that feeling of being connected to a force greater than myself, especially when I was attending my clinical experiences. There have been a few points throughout the semester in which I have felt somewhat “burnt out” while completing my course work and studying for my exams. However, during my clinical experience, I am reminded as to why I spend the majority of the time I have studying for exams and completing coursework. It provides me with the knowledge I need to make others feel better, and improve their quality of life, during some of the worst days of their lives. During the first four weeks of clinical, I have been able to complete fundamental nursing tasks such as taking vital signs, repositioning patients, helping with activities of daily living, performing wound care and making bedside assessments. Despite the basic nature of these tasks, they are activities that we will be performing throughout the entirety of our careers. Performing a task such as helping a client eat, or reposition them in bed can make a great difference in their level of comfort. The patients have seemed very appreciative of seemingly small efforts that make a positive difference in their quality of their stay at the hospital. When I can tell that a patient feels better because of a small effort that I performed, I feel a sense of gratification. That sense of gratification translates into me feeling as if I am connected to the common goal of healthcare workers. That common goal appears to be to help others,as well as improve their quality of life. An additional factor that helped me meet this goal was the feeling of gratification from being helpful to the nurses on my unit. I felt as if I was making a difference through reducing the workload of the nurses through taking all of the morning vitals for their patients. When the nurses have less of a workload, it seems they are better able to care for all of the clients needs and get their medications to the patients in a timely manner. Helping out the nurses on the unit connected me to the healthcare team. A barrier to achieving this goal was the feeling of getting used to working in the hospital setting. There was definitely a learning curve to finding my way throughout the unit, as well as interacting with human beings that are in an extremely vulnerable state. There is a certain professional etiquette that I feel must be learned when interacting with other members of the healthcare team. I am still in the process of picking up on that etiquette. 

The other goal that I set was to better listen to and respect the feelings of others. THis goal was important to me because I felt as if I needed to prioritize my close friendships in order to assist in managing the stress associated with my busy schedule this semester. I did not want to become so busy that I felt as if I could not make time to spend with my best friends. A big part of maintaining relationships is listening to, respecting and assisting in making the person feel that their feelings are valid. I was successful in meeting this goal when I set aside specific days to take a day off from nursing and focus on my close relationships. However, when I was busy with schoolwork or feeling overwhelmed by my schedule, it was difficult to provide my friends with the attention that they deserved, so I was not as able to be available to listen to their concerns, which I regret since I value them greatly. Becoming a better listener can also help in a clinical setting, as listening to a patient’s concerns and picking up on red flags is an extremely valuable assessment skill.

According to Prochaska’s transtheoretical model of change in the context of my first goal, I pre contemplated by assessing which areas of my life required improvement. I determined that my motivation and drive required improvement. I contemplated how I could formulate a goal that would contribute to the improvement of my motivation and drive. I determined that feeling connected to a force greater than myself would contribute to an increase in my drive. I prepared to be successful in meeting this goal through attending clinical experiences and working to meet the academic targets that I set for myself at the beginning of the semester.I maintained this goal through actively framing my thoughts and actions specifically for the attaining of this goal. The change readiness increased throughout the semester, as I worked towards making the changes I had to make to achieve the goals. This model for change can be applied to patient care in the context of drug and alcohol addiction. A person must be ready to change in order for the process to change to occur. In order to help someone with a drug or alcohol addiction, the readiness for change must be assessed. In order to continue to meet these goals, I must continue my academic and clinical experience practice as a nursing student. I will learn through experience, and learning more about the profession will allow me to feel more connected to that force greater than myself.