Monday, August 27, 2012

End of my Capstone Experience


The end of my global health experience has been great.  I have really enjoyed working with my peer as well as the Cleveland Health Department Staff over the past two months.  I feel that I have successfully partnered with the community and the agency that I was working with at the Thomas McCafferty Health Center.  I learned so much just from the interactions I had with the patients that came to the clinic on a daily  basis. 

Insights I have gained about the role of a public health nurse as a result of this experience include learning how different their roles are than a nurse working in the hospital.  These nurses are required to deliver information to patients over a short period of time with the hopes of the patient retaining the information.  As in the hospital, most times the patients are in-patients, and will hear the same patient information constantly during their stay.  I commend them for their efforts at educating a community on serious health issues which are preventable during their work day.  I have met my clinical goals which were set in week one.  I feel I have enhanced my scope of nursing skills by focusing on a specific type of nursing and still applying the same nursing concepts such as patient assessment, treatment and education.  I have become more comfortable with finding ways of relating to younger aged individuals in order to gain their trust and allow them to communicate with me as part of their treatment. 

There is nothing I would have done differently from my clinical experience.  Everything that happened from my experience has made me more knowledgeable and confident in my work.  I followed the rules, and succeeded in providing patient care with no mistakes, while learning at the same time.  These insights will help me in the future as a nurse by providing me with helpful information in which I could look back on whenever I am in the nursing field.  I learned more than just about a STD during my time at the health clinic, I learned how to become a better nurse.

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