LEARNING ACTIVITY 5

Describe an encounter in where you were able to render novice nursing

Nursing is a profession that is established and honed through the validation of hands-on practice and
first-hand experience. As a nurse myself, it took time and several familiarizations of how everything
works in the clinical field. It sometimes takes months and even years for nurses and even other clinically
inclined professionals to develop their clinical eye and master the art and craft of their profession.

In my own point of view, being a nurse myself, I was able to hone my skills and raised the quality of my
work because of the experiences and hands-on validation I was presented with. I did not start as an
expert immediately but rather started as a novice and tried to learn everything in between as I move
forward.

With relation to Carper’s way of knowing in nursing, allow me to variate certain scenarios that I came
across with whilst trying to establish my foundations in clinical nursing practice. These are some of the
scenarios I encountered, and I will be dissecting it according to how Carper would present it.

Scenario 1: First time to do IV Cannulation on a patient. No IV Cannulation training, but with Theoretical
Foundations of IV Cannulation.

(1) empirics—

Theoretically, I am aware of the process of IV cannulation and was able to successfully pass a return
demonstration of how it is to be performed correctly. In addition, the concepts of parenteral nutrition,
parenteral needs and the technicalities of establishing an IV line has already been theoretically taught
and practice while studying Nursing.

(2) esthetics—

Despite the lack of personal experience, as a trained professional, you present yourself to the patient in
a professional and confident manner to gain the trust and cooperation of the patient that you would be
servicing, and that is how I presented myself that time. I need to get 3 IV cannulations successfully at
first try for me to be allowed to do IV cannulation to a patient.

(3) personal knowledge in nursing –

Integration and touch-basing with patient would allow you to gain further trust and cooperation. I was
explaining the process of IV cannulation, the things to anticipate and the importance of why an IV line
was important in relation to the illness the patient was experiencing.

(4) ethics—moral knowledge in nursing.

Ethics on this scenario usually falls in your ability to perform the process correctly. As a nurse trying to
establish an IV line in various situations, you are faced with the dilemma of trying to establish it correctly
and accordingly. For a nurse to properly determine that the IV cannulation was successful, you need to
check certain parameters like the back flow, absence of bulged areas before the cannulation site (this is
an evidence of a needle through and through that makes the site at risk for edema and phlebitis), IV
flow is good despite several tests for regulation be it at kvo rate or full blast. As I followed the nurses
code of ethics, before I declared that the IV site was patent and good, I checked these parameters and
the senior nurse that time assigned to look after my training also needed to confirm such patency before
securing the site and declaring it patent and ready for servicing the patient’s parenteral requirements.

Scenario 2: As I assumed the Infection Control Nurse and Senior nurse position, It was my first time to
be given such responsibility to have a team and lead them towards establishing ways on how we would
achieve our goals and deliverables.

(1) empirics—

My knowledge and theoretical foundations of Leadership and Management provided me a sound

As a senior nurse, my personal experience and the foundation knowledge of the profession and the
nursing process allowed to also get a fuller grasp of how I would be handling the team I am with.

(2) esthetics—

Personally, if your team is new, it is very difficult to immediately earn your members trust and
cooperation. That time, I presented myself in a very professional manner and provided my team initial
background of the qualifications I have before getting the position. I also used soft skills rather than
conversations that automatically exercise authority as this strategy is less triggering and condescending.
It is also an advantage if you present yourself positively and the choice of words are those with positive
reinforcements for them to feel welcomed and assured. It has always been my standpoint that it is not
about what you say but it is always about how you say it that matters most.

(3) personal knowledge in nursing –

For me, I always make it a point that I get to do a discussion or briefing first if there are changes that
needs to be done, a policy that would be released or a process that needs to be revisited. When it was
my first time to conduct a meeting with the team, I made sure that I presented them the topic
coherently and made sure they get to understand the topic, the foundations and the strategy. Presently,
I firmly believed that because of this strategy back then, I was able to train my staff to respond to a
specific scenario logically and appropriately because I was able to educate them with the needed
foundations. This is a complete example of how I successfully imparted my personal knowledge for the
upliftment of my team members. This made my job easier fast-forward.

(4) ethics—moral knowledge in nursing.

On this scenario, I believe the ethico-moral principle of religiously following the infection prevention
protocol and standards, the process of adhering and maintaining sterility and aseptic techniques and the
process of maintaining high quality outputs is the one looked into. Situationally, any breach to infection
control may lead to a hospital wide infection spread and if you are part of the team that keeps its
integrity, you are morally held liable to always uphold it otherwise, your will be guilty of whatever
repercussions the hospital may face because of not following and implementing the protocols and
standards. It goes the same way with the trainings and the quality of training you give to your staff and
team. You are expected to deliver a logical, soundful and knowledge base training that allows the
learners to retain the learning, otherwise your credibility as a senior nurse, or part of the team that is in-
charge of such task will be questioned.