Reflections on Nursing

This week was tough for me.  I felt like there were so many things that were all due at once, and it was pretty overwhelming.  I'm not sure my learning this week was effective as it could have been.  Mostly I was just doing the assignments to get them done, rather than making an effort to learn anything. XXXXX Our team activities this week were to come up with interview questions about firing and discipline, as well as two discussions on ethics. Ethics are not my favorite (neither is philosophy).  There are no concrete answers.  It's hard to determine what is right and what is wrong, and sometimes there isn't a right answer. For example, one of the discussions this week presented this case study: A 17-year-old female presented to an emergency department (ED) with a Chief Complaint of fatigue and general malaise. The day prior she had been seen in a local family practice clinic and started on oseltamivir for presumed influenza. In the ED, he...

This week for one of our assignments, we had to interview someone (outside of healthcare) who is responsible for conducting performance appraisals of employees.  I interviewed my friend, Susan G., who is a manager at doTERRA. Q:  Do the employees complete a self evaluation before meeting with you?  Do you feel they are usually honest? A:  Yes, they do complete a self evaluation, and for the most part, I do feel they are usually honest.  We meet with our employees frequently, so they are aware of what is expected of them, so they know what we expect of them. Q:  What kind of scale do you use to evaluate performance (poor, below average, average, etc., a number scale, etc.?)  Is the performance evaluation consistent for all employees? A:  We use a below, at, or exceeds standards.  For each of the employees in our department, they are all measured the same way.  We look at the average and the expectations of all involved (employees,...

This week we talked about performance appraisals and dealing with problem employees.   I don't think anyone really looks forward to performance appraisals, but I do think they are important.  Like the lectures mentioned, they give employees a good idea of how they are doing and which areas they can or should improve in.  Like a report card, or a measuring stick.  Performance appraisals can be conducted monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, or annually. I, personally, think performance appraisals should be conducted more often than just an annual appraisal.  An annual appraisal just doesn't seem like it would be as effective, because it would be harder to see improvement and to follow up. We also talked about dealing with problem employees.  In a leadership position, things will come up and you will have to deal problem employees. One thing that was mentioned from the lecture that I thought was interesting was the idea that discipline is not a bad ...

This week we got an even more in depth look at what goes on on the interviewer side of the table.   We used the interview questions that our team came up with last week to conduct an interview with someone (outside of healthcare) who is responsible for hiring new employees.  This interview was a pretty interesting experience because it gave me a different perspective on what kinds of things interviewers are looking for.  I knew that things like appearance and personality are important, but I don't think I had ever spent much time thinking about immediate disqualifiers.  Sure, I could come up with a few, but whenever we talk about preparing for interviews, I feel like we talk more about what you should do, than what you shouldn't do or say. Our group activity for this week was to write a 12-15 page paper on activities that would create an online or virtual team building experience in which leadership, compromise, communication, and followership would be demon...

This week for one of our assignments, we had to interview someone (outside of healthcare) who is responsible for hiring employees.  I chose to interview one of my good friends, Rachel J., who is a Team Lead at Vivint. Q:  How much of your decision making is based off of personal appearance such as:  facial expressions, tone of voice, general appearance, gender, mannerisms, hair style, etc? A:  I base a lot on whether they come to the interview dressed nice.  Even though our dress code at Vivint is really relaxed, I like to see them put effort into the interview and take pride in their appearance.  Also since the job is a phone job, their tone of voice and ability to sound polite on the phone is important. Q:  How often do you come prepared when you interview with a candidate, such as looking at the candidate's resume beforehand? A:  I'll usually briefly read through their resume and look to make sure it is professional.  We hire a lot...

This week, we focused on hiring and how to create good questions to ask when you are the interviewer.  It was honestly a very interesting topic, especially since I am fresh from the interviewee side of the table.   One of our assignments for the week was to come up with 5 behavioral based interview questions.  When I was looking into what makes a good behavioral based question, I kept coming across this "STAR format." Graphic from:  https://www.thebalancecareers.com/behavioral-job-interview-questions-2059620  The STAR format (or technique) is a tool to help interviewees prepare for their upcoming interview.  The acronym stands for: S ituation T ask A ction R esult When asking (or answering) a behavioral based interview question, these points are what the interviewer is looking for.  The interviewer wants to know how you handled the situation and what the results were.  You could even add something you wished you had done diffe...

This week we discussed what a leader is, and what qualities make effective leaders.  It was interesting because I had never really sat down and determined what a leader was.  I think we often think of leaders as people who literally lead a group of people. But a leader is a person who leads, commands, or inspires  a group, organization, or country. Obviously, it makes sense that a leader would also be someone who inspires a group of people.  Those are the leaders who are absolutely leading by example.  They may not be traditionally leading someone or running a country, but are leaders simply by being innovators in their field. We had a really interesting team activity this week where this concept of what a leader is really came into play.  We were given this this list of leaders and told to come to a consensus as a team about which of these people were leaders and why . Mohamed Abe Lincoln Buddha Jim Jones Florence Nightingale Moses Albert ...

Leadership requires personal mastery   –  In order for nurses to be effective leaders, they must first demonstrate mastery of nursing skills. Leadership is about values   – Nurses must have values that are considered "good" and "honorable" in order to encourage others to follow them.  Some of these values include honesty, integrity, service, and respect. Leadership is about service   – Nursing is all about service.  Leadership is also all about service.  A good leader should be continually looking for ways to serve and help those that they lead. Leadership is about people and relationships   – Nurses are constantly interacting with people.  In order to be an effective leader, nurses must form strong interpersonal relationships and really make an effort to connect with those they lead, as well as all those they come in contact with. Leadership is contextual   – There are many different ways for nurses to be leaders.  Th...