The movie NURSES If Florence Could See Us Now includes anecdotal stories of many nurses in a plethora of fields. There are some skills I noticed in the movie that I hope to develop better in my career as a nurse including good listening skills, independence with confidence and being able to acknowledge limits and when it is time to give myself a break. First, with listening skills, I feel that I do a good job at this now but I want to make sure that when I am listening, I am also assessing body language, or for example if they are speaking fast. This additional information could guide me to other possible assumptions to further assess such as abuse, nervousness or fear. Second, being able to do an assessment or just notice a change in my patient, and be confident in my findings, even if someone else does not agree. For example, if I hear crackles but they think it is coarse. Finally, knowing when I need to step back and take a break. Self care is something that we have been encouraged to keep up with in nursing school. We are also encouraged to keep this up throughout our career as a nurse since it can be very draining physically, emotionally and mentally. 

During the movie, one nurse stuck out to me particularly. She worked outside of the hospital as a public health nurse (mental health/ social worker). Throughout this career, she spoke of some barriers that you may never think of. These included traveling to get out to these secluded homes, having no cellular service, or getting a flat tire on the way, or not having the supplies available. This was very interesting to me since this is not a population or type of nursing I have served in. Understanding their religious or cultural beliefs when it comes to caring for them and medications they will or will not take. Another nurse, Karen Hill, had a story that stuck with me. She worked with the homeless population and her practice of cultural humility was obvious. She mentioned something that stuck with me. It was along the lines of how she used to like rainy days or snow but after working with this population, all she thinks about now on those days are her patients who would be sleeping on the streets. I want to be better at practicing cultural humility. I feel that I try to think of the patient holistically and care for them without judgment. I let them have their own opinions and beliefs on whether they want the medication or not. However, I feel that I could benefit from more knowledge on cultural beliefs. By doing so, I can better care for and understand patients with those beliefs. 

After hearing from staff at Maine Hospitals for future career information as well as the videos providing information on the interviewing process, I took note of a few things I could do to stand out from others. I plan to prepare for my interviews by looking up the organization and really getting an understanding of their mission. I also plan to think about different scenarios I have encountered in the healthcare setting that I could include. Lastly, I will come up with my own questions about the position and facility as a whole to ask during the interview. 

I feel like a strength I can talk about is how UNE pushed for us to have in-person clinical experiences. This is something that has been a challenge and constantly changing during the pandemic. Throughout all the types of clinical experiences we had, we learned how to be flexible and deal with adversity. These are skills that will also be beneficial in my nursing career. Throughout this, teamwork was also encouraged. Seeing it within the faculty as they worked through clinical placements and simulation experiences but also between us students as we worked through those simulation experiences. Teamwork is huge in nursing as you are working as a team whether that be the other nurses on the floor, patients and their family, or interprofessional relations. On the other hand, one of my weaknesses is sometimes being forgetful. I have been working on this in my career as a CNA because I do not always have time to chart something right away. I always have a blank piece of paper with me to jot down notes and then go back later to put them into the computer. I also use the sticky note function on EPIC while I am at work, which allows you to have a separate sticky note on each patient file that only you can see. This helps me to stay organized and is another place for me to jot notes down.