Month: April 2021

My Eportfolio project focused on the importance of reflection in my academic experience. Having this as a resource to track my progress throughout the nursing program is valuable. I have enjoyed seeing how much I have grown since the start last summer, I have seen a lot of progress in my physical wellness thanks to an assignment in Passport to Integration. I have been able to keep the goals I made last July and have improved since. Additionally, I found this class Integrated Experience to be the most valuable class for reflection assignments.

Following the Fundamentals ATI adaptive quiz, I was content with my results, but still have room to improve. As compared to my first ATI Adaptive quiz, I improved on my average time for each question, improving by 10 seconds to have an average of 33 seconds but it is still far from the NCLEX average of 1 minute 21 seconds. For several of the questions, I was familiar with what they were asking, but had a hard time recalling the knowledge or felt like I couldn’t pick out the right answer from the answer choices. I was content with having completed the adaptive quiz in less questions than my mental health quiz, and hope that continues to improve with the reviewing and amount of practice questions. One area of improvement that could be done before taking another adaptive quiz could be reviewing more key content areas in that area before taking, especially if it was a course that was awhile ago. Another area that I am going to change for my next time taking an adaptive quiz is to be in a place that is not distracting to me, the past 2 I have taken in public places with people walking around and that is not helpful. Considering how I was more nervous to take the fundamentals quiz over the mental health quiz I am happy how it went and will continue to review my remediation forms and make them detailed to help me. 

• Following the ATI Critical Thinking Assessment, write a brief description and analysis of how your exit exam results compared with your entrance exam results. What steps will you take to further develop your critical thinking skills as you look ahead to the transition from nursing student to professional nurse? 

My exit exam score was surprisingly lower than my entrance exam grade by a few points. I’m not upset with a slightly lower score because my initial score was a 75% and I went down to a 70%, so only a few questions different. Scheduling this exam a few hours before an exam for maternity was not the easiest to shift my mindset and take a break from reviewing. To further develop my critical thinking scores, I can: do practice NCLEX critical thinking problems, slow down when taking the exam, do more deep breaths and feel less anxious during the exam and try and not feel as distracted when others are completed with their exam. Some specific areas to improve on based on my ATI Report are inference, self-regulation, and interpretation so finding specific practice questions in these areas would be most beneficial. Inference is drawing conclusions based on evidence and identifying gaps in knowledge. Self-regulation is reflecting on your own thinking and analyzing added information to make a decision. Interpretation is understanding and explaining written directions data and graphics. Over the course of the next couple months about to prepare for the NCLEX, these areas would be the best to prioritize and look over to improve my critical thinking skills as I become a professional nurse. 

In a thoughtful, two- to three-paragraph post, reflect on the following: 

1. Describe individual, environmental, and societal factors influencing the health of vulnerable and marginalized populations. 
2. Examine the historical, social, cultural, political, and economic forces that influence vulnerability and marginalization. 
3. Discuss strategies for resolving health and healthcare disparities and improving the health of vulnerable and marginalized populations. 
4. How will you apply what you learn about care of marginalized persons to enhance the care of diverse populations? 

After this week’s insightful class meeting with Bob Fowler, the Portland Maine Public Health Director, he shed light on the various public health initiatives and efforts that the city offers for the community. For those of vulnerable and marginalized populations in any area or specifically in the Portland, Maine area they could experience deficits in their everyday life because of unfair treatment. One specific example that is prevalent right now is someone possibly not being able to have the chance to register for a COVID-19 vaccination due to being in a marginalized population. Many things can affect a person such as: not fluent in English or any offered languages of a facility, not being literate, not having access to technology, not having consistent living situations or an address to write on forms, not having healthcare or an income. Often the initial forces that influenced marginalization and vulnerability for populations goes back to gender and race, favoring Caucasian males. This historical perspective continued forward throughout decades and can still be seen in the economy and social movements in today’s culture. This way of thinking is: being anything out of the ‘norm’ puts a target on you and you can be seen as different and not deserving of the same treatment or pay. No matter the amount of traction or support that movements going against this POV, not much has changed and vulnerable populations still exist. 

To improve the health of these populations, healthcare facilities can expand on the amount and quality of interpreters and options for communication that are available, having a well-diversified staff to welcome and treat these patients, connecting and having community resources available if-needed could be a start for strategies. Not all these strategies can be implemented overnight but admitting that it is a goal and making progress over time would be beneficial. To enhance the care of these populations I will ensure to: prioritize all patients and treat all with the same respect that I would expect to have for myself, utilize motivational interviewing techniques throughout all encounters, build therapeutic relationships, work inter-professionally to connect my clients with resources and make them feel involved and supported throughout their care. Learning more about the community that we reside in can be an important step for when starting a new-graduate nursing job and be able to work towards these goals.