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Midterm Self Evaluation

Melissa Amos
Maternity/Child
0539460

Name: Melissa Amos

Course Number: NURS 2021H

Course Name: Family Focused Practice

Area of Practice: Maternity and Child

Clinical Instructor: Kate Burnigham

Professional Responsibility and Accountability

During the clinical placement this semester it is very important for myself to understand
my professional responsibility as well as my accountability. I am demonstrating the proper
accountability by documenting my findings and speaking to the nurse in charge of my patient if I
have any concerns. I am taking responsibility for my actions by writing my assessments as well
as notes of interest within the patients chart.
While comparing my achievements to those stated in the learning plan I presented earlier
in the term I feel that I have made a conscious effort to attempt to achieve my goals related to
professional responsibility. An example of this is that I am now comfortable preforming a head to
toe assessment on the mother as well as child. This is one of my stated goals that I hoped I would
achieve by the end of the term. In addition to this I am further developing skills to form more
involved therapeutic relationships, as well as increasing my knowledge that I am able to share
with the patients. I am actively seeking out further information regarding questions that parents
may have about their child, or mothers may have about their condition postpartum.
Melissa, you have demonstrated accountability and responsibility through presenting in
clinical each day on time, ready to work, in appropriate clothing and with identification. You
have done well to have all of your assignments in on time and done well. You have practiced
well so far within your scope of practice as a second year nursing student, and when you are
unsure you always ask an appropriate nurse or instructor for assistance. You have submitted a
set of three goals in your learning plan, one skills related, one regarding building relationships
with patients and staff, and one concerning health teaching regarding postpartum and infant
care; all three goals are excellent, and you are working well to meet these goals that you have

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set for yourself. Going forward I would like to see you keep up with all of this and continue on
in your journey of meeting your goals and looking for new learning opportunities and areas of
personal growth.
Knowledge-based Practice
All of the my practice is based on knowledge, on what I know as well as how I execute
my skills based upon this knowledge. I feel as though I have made progress in this competency. I
have been able to feel comfortable and in belief properly execute a head to toe assessment on
both a mother and child. I understand what values are acceptable, and when I should start to
question if the results are accurate. I have more experience regarding therapeutic relationships
and I am more capable of establishing one, despite how short the relationship may be. In addition
to this I am further enhancing my knowledge with each patient, as well as with each question I
ask during placement. Therefore I feel more comfortable educating the parents regarding their
child.
I feel as though I am actively involved in this competency. Every clinical shift I am
asking questions of both the instructor, as well as other nurses and peers. I am seeking out new
information at every possibility. In addition to this I am going along with other students to visit
patients in order to observe their interactions and see how I may be better able to improve my
own care. I am seeking out as many opportunities as possible in order to better enhance my ability
to care for patients as well my knowledge as a whole.
You are progressing well within the knowledge portion of this rotation, you have been able to
assess a postpartum woman following a vaginal delivery and in addition you have completed a
full head to toe assessment of her baby. It shows that you are attending all of your lab sessions
at school and you have attended your mandatory mental health day, as you are always
prepared for and have an understanding of different situations that you might come across.
You have also spent a day in the NICU where you were able to assess newborns, care for an
infant suffering from neonatal abstinence syndrome and provide feeding support to parents.

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You have also been providing health teaching to your patients regarding the discharge process
and as well when they ask or you see that teaching is necessary. Please continue to search out
opportunities for health teaching with your patients, and continue to search for extra learning
opportunities. At this point and going forward it is important that we find other ways that we
can provide care and support to patients and also to try and help the staff more; we are getting
quicker at our assessments and we need to find other activities to pass free time.
Ethical Practice
Ethical practice relates to behaving and practicing nursing care in a morally just and
caring manner. This means doing your best to make sure the care provided to the patient is the
best care possible. In the case of ethical practice related to my goals that I have established for
myself this semester I have focused on providing the best care possible for the patient. My goal
was to be able to properly educate the mother of any concerns that she may have regarding caring
for her child such as, breastfeeding, nail care and bruises/poor circulation. I believe that I am
growing my knowledge base as well as my ability to help the mother understand and properly
care for her infant. I feel more confident and assured delivering this information than I felt at the
beginning of the term. However there is still much more for me to learn.
I practice ethical by following the proper procedures. I maintain the confidentiality of the
patient and their child, as well as their circumstances. In addition to this I seek out the best
method for caring for the patient. When I am not sure of an answer or I do not feel comfortable
performing a task by myself I seek out additional information or a peer/nurse in order to help me
provide the best care of answer for the patient. I also do not perform any task that I feel I am not
prepared to perform. For example I feel comfortable performing head to toe assessments by
myself, however I have never performed a baby bath by myself and therefore would not perform
this procedure without a peer with me in order to help me make sure I am doing my best to
properly perform the skill. I am taking precautions in order to make sure I am properly
performing skills and attempting to provide the best care for my patient.

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You show that you are working ethically during this clinical rotation by always working safely
within your scope of practice. It is important to always continue to ask questions when you are
unsure of yourself and the care you are providing. You have written your first LEARN
reflection paper on the topic of how you feel you own personal biases and opinions could affect
the way you provide care to your patients. In the paper you identified a situation that made you
feel uncomfortable and how you worked through your feelings and discomfort to provide care
to this family the same as you would to any other family. This is a very good practice, to
examine how different situations affect you and your care, you might not see this exact
situation again, but you will encounter other situations where you feel like you cant provide
top notch care to people because of their situation. Therefore a reflective practice on this topic
will help you throughout you whole career not just this rotation.

Please continue to be

mindful of ethical situation so you can analyze them; it is not necessary to write a reflection
paper every time but just thinking about these situations or doing personal research will
provide you with a career long lesson learned.

Service to the Public

While gathering goals for this semester my goal relating to service to the public was to
provide the best care possible for my patients by educating them regarding proper care for their
child. This means I hope to improve my ability to provide information related to aspects of care
such as nail care, breastfeeding and skin-to-skin contact.
I have been achieving this goal throughout the term by gathering more information
related to these concerns, and presenting them to the patient. I seek out the proper information
from peers or other nurses if I do not know the answer. Once I go home if I feel as though I want
to know more I will research the topic further. By doing this I am helping the public because I am

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helping to educate the population with the correct information and therefore hopefully helping to
provide better care.
You have always shown your service to the public through you initiative to learn about aspects
of postpartum and infant care. You have studied the discharge package and discussed this
with patients, and in addition, you have provided teaching on plagiocephaly, keeping babies
warm and sleep hygiene.

Going forward I would like to see you focus on breastfeeding

support. I will try to offer you opportunities to care for women who require support in their
infant feeding. I addition I will try and get you some off unit experiences in birthing suite and
in either the pop clinic or the neonatal follow up clinic.
Self-Regulation
Self-regulation is important as a nurse as it is what helps nurses provide better care. The
process of self-regulation includes reflecting and learning from past experiences. This means
looking at situations reflexively and seeing what you as an individual can improve on. In addition
to this self-regulation relates to managing your behavior and biases that you may have and acting
appropriately in the workplace. My goals for this term relating to self-regulation include: properly
performing head-to-toe assessment on both mother and child, forming therapeutic relationships,
as well as providing education to the patient. All practice relates to self-regulation.
I have demonstrated self-regulation by reflecting on my clinical shifts and thinking about
how I could have improved my care. This includes attempting new methods and sequences for
taking vitals or increasing my knowledge related to baby care. In addition to this I have tried to
become aware of biases that I may have towards situations before I enter a room. This helps me
to identify behavior that may present this bias and attempt to remove it from my actions.
So overall Melissa, you are progressing well through this clinical rotation, you have done great
work in the hospital and outside with your assignments, etc. From here on in we are going to
work a little closer with the staff on the floor, keep in better touch with them about the patients
about assessments, feedings, etc. Also as I mentioned above we need to find activities to occupy

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our time on the floor, either by helping other nurses, setting up cribs and rooms, stocking, etc.
I will try really hard to ensure that we get you off the unit for your experiences, but I need you
to demonstrate care for a c-section mom and as well give a bath. So far so good though, you
are progressing well through the rotation, Great Job!