A skill that the nurses exemplified in the movie that I need to work on developing in myself is the difference between helping adults feel more comfortable and less scared in a healthcare environment versus helping children because I have spent my nursing school and CNA time caring for adult patients and have little to no experience working with pediatric patients because I have not started my pediatric clinical yet. One of the male nurses in the video described that he makes pediatric patients feel more comfortable by wearing fun clothes such as a superman shirt, using a lego man light, and having a tiger stethoscope cover. Using these things makes medical equipment less scary for kids and makes it seem like they are playing with toys instead of doing a medical assessment that could seem scary to a child. The way we make adult patients less nervous is educating them so they feel less helpless, actively involving them in their care, and providing a safe space to talk about their emotions and mental state while dealing with health issues. I can definitely research and work on different ways that can be helpful to make children feel comfortable in a hospital setting.
In the movie home health nurses were caring for the Navajo nation and they discussed the dilemmas that can arise from patients being more comfortable with traditional treatments and less willing to try western medicine treatments. I haven’t had the chance to work with a patient that uses traditional cultural treatments before. Barriers to care for these patients would be that the western medicine treatments may scare them or they don’t trust the validity of them because maybe they haven’t been educated properly or well enough about the treatment. Nurses need to be able to respect the patients traditional treatment wishes without passing judgment of the validity of the treatment. As nurses we need to provide the patient with western medicine options for treatment and provide them with adequate education about these treatments while knowing they might not want to opt for these options because they are more comfortable with the traditional treatments from their culture. If I were to encounter a patient that was wanting to use traditional treatments from their culture I would want them to educate me about the treatment so I can hold onto that knowledge if I were to encounter someone from the same culture wanting to use the same treatment. Having an open mind like this to learn about other cultures will make me a better nurse able to care for diverse populations. I would suggest that the patient listens to my education about possible western medical treatments after they teach me about their traditional treatments.
I always describe my ability to be empathetic as my biggest strength. I would describe my experience in various clinicals and working as a CNA with so many different types of patients as how I gained experience working with patients and working on putting myself in their shoes to be able to provide the most quality care that I can provide with them. I would say one of my weaknesses goes along with being empathetic because I tend to feel things very deeply. Feeling things deeply can cause me to feel big emotions and the way I address this is working on debriefing with others. I had a really hard day at clinical last week and I immediately messaged my instructor to meet with me to debrief and talk about a hard situation that I was involved in. Talking with other people always helps me work through my emotions safely and helps me to not get upset.
Thank you, Samantha, for sharing how the nurses in the movie have inspired you to reflect on our own practice and identify areas in which you already demonstrate strength as well as those where there is room for improvement – which is to be expected at this point in your career! It’s wonderful to hear how many great ideas and strategies you were able to pick up on that could help you in your care of children. You clearly also understand the reciprocal nature of the nurse-patient relationship, and that each has something to share with & learn from the other. Great work!