Discussion – week 1 – creating your personal nursing legacy

This discussion is divide in two parts

1. Main discussion post by 11/28/2022 before 8:00 pm EST

2. Two replies by 12/01/2022 before 8:00 pm EST

CREATING YOUR PERSONAL NURSING LEGACY

Many nurses throughout history have left distinguished legacies of excellence in a variety of ways. What impact might you have on patients that you encounter every day?

Past and current challenges in nursing and health care have been met by exemplary nurse leaders. Each exhibited, or exhibits, an enhanced focus and ideation, enriched values, purpose, and grit! Successful nurse leaders are equipped to be effective thinkers, communicators, motivators, and champions of personalized health care.

Nurses continue to build upon a rich legacy of innovations and commitment to meet issues of nursing and health care. Florence Nightingale, for example, was highly educated, focused on a path of lifelong discovery, and dedicated to knowledge and science in the service of others. Her legacy created a better society.

Your individual nursing legacy is an integral part of the legacy of nursing. Reflect on how you want your nursing career to be remembered. Envision what you want to leave to the profession in the areas of practice, education, and research. Make a conscious decision to plan deliberately what your legacy will be, rather than just letting it happen.

Review the Learning Resources and write at least 350 words addressing the following Discussion topic. In this Discussion, you can begin considering your own personal nursing legacy.

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Post a 2-paragraph response (of at least 350 words) to the following.  

a. The 200th birthday celebration of Florence Nightingale and the World Health Organization’s designation of 2020 as the Year of the Nurse and Midwife created an exciting opportunity to elevate and empower nursing.

b. Describe a challenge in nursing. As a nurse leader, share at least two solutions to meet that specific challenge based on current proposals and/or inspiration derived from past nurse leaders’ expertise and experiences.  

c. At least 3 references

d.
APA 7

Instructions:

Respond to your colleagues. Consider providing a supporting statement about each colleagues’ response based on at least one of this week’s Learning Resources. Or consider asking a clarifying question about each colleagues’ vision.

**minimum of three (3) scholarly references are required for each reply cited within the body of the reply & at the end**

Mylca Decembre (
She/Her)

     As a new nurse during COVID, preventing nursing burnout is challenging. It is something I have had experience with and witnessed from colleagues and those in the healthcare field. One thing that nurses in the past and present are doing is creating better nurse-to-patient ratios and work conditions. Our delicate situation with COVID has caused the nurse-to-patient ratio to increase, and the number of nurses that have left the bedside has created another pandemic. Some of the solutions that have helped nurses combat nursing burnout are many. Having a journal to reflect on hard days is one of the solutions to help with burnout. We work with patients, and sometimes their outcomes could be better. Having a journal for the days that the unexpected has happened will help us move past those traumas. Those days are complicated, and writing down the challenges that day, what went right, and how one could move past this will help to become a better nurse and live in the moment. Another solution is to ensure one basic needs are being met. These needs could include:  exercising at least four times a week, drinking water throughout the day, having a snack when needed, and, most importantly, good sleep hygiene. Life becomes more manageable than when needs are unmet or when one can recognize their needs because they are keeping up with them.

     Another problem related to nursing burnout is bullying and gossiping in the workplace. We, as nurses, do not give the same grace to each other that we give to our patients. However, the new generation of nurses are working hard to change the nurses eating their young ideology that is common in this field of work. The solution is to remember that we are humans taking care of other humans. Sure, there are many opportunities to take accountability but being kind is more important than being right. Another helpful solution is using teaching moments not to intimidate those who do not know. Great, late Maya Angelou once said, “people do not always remember what you say, but they will always remember how you made them feel.”   

     The legacy I desire to carry as a nurse leader is to remember that we have all started from somewhere, and to be a successful nurse, one must remember their needs first.

Instructions:

Respond to your colleagues. Consider providing a supporting statement about each colleagues’ response based on at least one of this week’s Learning Resources. Or consider asking a clarifying question about each colleagues’ vision.

**minimum of three (3) scholarly references are required for each reply cited within the body of the reply & at the end**

Luther Armstrong

Challenge in Nursing

Main Question Post.  One of the growing challenges that I have seen in nursing is nursing burnout.  This challenge has always existed in nursing, but due to the recent Covid-19 pandemic, the effects of high workloads, increased nurse-to-patient ratios, low staffing, and extended shifts have taken its toll on many nurses I have worked with, including myself, to a degree.  As a travel psychiatric nurse, I have had the opportunity to work in 4 states and at eight different hospital systems since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.  I have witnessed the effects of deterioration of the nurses’ health, being emotionally drained, a decline in work performance and a reduction in personal accomplishment are just a few of the results of nursing burnout, according to Maslach (Ball et al., 2019).  Maslach developed the Maslach Burnout inventory scale, one of the scale models used to measure burnout in individuals.  One of the most significant effects I have seen that may result from nursing burnout is the decline in patient care.  Working in caring for the psychiatric population, to begin with, is a very trying and stressful task.  When coupled with the factors mentioned above of increased nurse-to-patient ratios and low staffing, to mention a couple, it is no wonder I have witnessed low employee morale in many places and, most of all, patients not being cared for as they should and even in some respects patients being mistreated. 

Two solutions to alleviate the effects and results of nursing burnout are better nurse-to-patient ratios and more nurses. These two solutions go together because to get better nurse-patient ratios, it will take educating, training, and hiring more people into the nursing field.  The process of becoming a nurse, as we all know, takes some years but getting better nurse-to-patient ratios can start now. In that same spirit and with the same tenacity that Florence Nightingale took when she challenged politicians to provide better equipment that would keep staff and soldiers safe and promote the cleanliness of hospitals for better patient outcomes (Natasha McEnroe, 2020), nurse leaders of today must challenge politicians to mandate better nurse-to-patient ratios across the country and give the necessary concessions, such as tax breaks, and financial grants to those that are willing to