Definition and benefits of e-portfolios

E-portfolios can be described as a tool and a learning procedure that mainly contributes in deepening of the student learning. In their e portfolios, students are seen to select different evidences of their learning and reflect on those learning procedures. They make connections between their courses and even between their academic work and the specific competencies that the program tries to target (Koivunen et al., 2015). Researchers have indeed affirmed the efficacy of the concept of e portfolios.

The word portfolio had been derived from the Italian word “Portare” meaning “to carry” and Foglio meaning “leaf or sheet”. In the current context in nursing, the portfolio can be described as the organized collection of the professional work that mainly follows the trajectory of the career of a nurse and thereby illustrates the background, skill and even the expertise of the individual (Souza et al., 2016). One of the studies had described portfolio as the work documentation across time that represents a collection of the evidences for effectively demonstrating the skills, knowledge, achievements and attitudes (McCabe et al., 2015). They also afford an individual snapshot of the current skills and thereby provide students and registered nurses with the opportunity of reflecting their professional growth that helps in developing new goals.

Benefits of portfolio:

Portfolio has huge number of benefits. It can be also viewed as the reflective document where it can promote self-directed learning and even assist in career development and planning. Portfolios can be used in the variety of professional disciplines within the setting of the university for a number of years for encouraging reflective practices in the students. However, a portfolio can never be considered as same as that of the CV.  

Portfolios can never replace CV but they are helpful in providing information at a volume as well as depth that can never be found in the CV (McCabe et al., 2015). These are seen to briefly list the backgrounds, achievements and experiences of the nurse whereas the portfolios mainly provides the depth of the evidences and the confirmation of the competencies as well as the expertise developed due to the result of the experiences of the nurse. Therefore, it also benefits as a valuable adjunct to that of the CV. Portfolios development is therefore considered as the active procedure that involve collection, synthesizing as well as organizing relevant information and important items that will reflect the vest evidences of achievement.  

Associated advantages for students:

Several important advantages result by effective development of e-portfolios by the students and the nursing professionals. Firstly, for the practicing nurses, reflection of their experiences as well as their skills would help in determining how well they are prepared for their positions they are seeking. Secondly, for the graduate nurses, reflection of the specific clinical and professional growth since the admission to a specific nursing program and thereby outlining the short and long-term goals prove to be extremely helpful in building their specific career path.

Third, in some of the disciples, e-portfolios are considered to be a well-established practice for demonstrating progress as well as archive coursework through the colleges and also provide evidences for effectively meeting learning outcomes (Alghamdi, 2016). Many of the researchers are also of the opinion that procedures of building an e-portfolio can support the preparation of the academic applications as well as for professional interviews.  

Importance of e-portfolios in nursing profession

An academic e-portfolio can be described as the digital collection that had been created by a student comprising of information for their course-related work. It might contain various types of components like essays, videos, photographs, artwork, videos and many others. Therefore, academic e-portfolios can also successfully comprise of the various aspects of the lives of the students that might involve employment history as well as volunteer experiences, extracurricular activities and many others (Shen, 2015). E-portfolios would be helping to documents and make the learning of students visible through digital collection off artifacts and contain subsequent reflection on these artifacts and the different things they represent.

Resume:

One of the most important artifacts that can be used is the discussion of the achievements as mentioned in resume of students. I have always aspired to help people by developing their health conditions and making their live better quality life.  Therefore, I have chosen the profession of nursing to fulfill my dreams and wanted to pursue my studies from the best universities of the world. I had completed my Bachelor’s degree in nursing from a renowned university From India namely All India Institute of Medical science which id of international fame in science and healthcare studies.

I had cracked the national level test for entering this university for which I had to study night and day for achieving my goals. I was very passionate about nursing profession and therefore I did not take any chances that affected my zeal to enter the university.  Following the completion of the degree in the university in the nation, I wanted to enhance my knowledge and skills further and hence wanted to study further in human healthcare from the best international university in the world.

My ambition drove me to apply for graduate in diploma nursing in the nation of Australia as it is one of the best nations that have high quality education systems for aspiring nursing professionals. I want to become a registered nurse and serve the people in the nation who suffer from different disorders and even poor quality nurses. However, although my motto is to serve the humanity by caring for them, my main mission and vision is to ultimately reach the position of nurse practitioners.

This would require me to cross through several stages and examinations to reach the position of nursing professionals. I might have to face various obstacles that come in my way not only academically but also personally and professionally. However, I believe that I have strong determination and zeal to achieve the goals successfully and therefore, with enthusiasm, self–awareness and self-regulation skills I will move forward towards my goals. I will never let any failures to affect my motivation level as well as my objectives and aims. Moreover, Australia is a new nation for me that have its own cultures, traditions and customs. Therefore, I will try to embrace all such aspects with open-mindedness and being culturally acceptable to everyone in the nation.

Feeling:

I was initially quite fearful about how people in the new university would accept me as I was from a different background. However, I was quite mesmerized by the arm welcome of the new nation where I was not treated as an outsider but as a fellow brother. The professors and students were really helpful and they encouraged working as team. I felt quite motivated and wanted to complete my course properly.

Advantages of e-portfolios for students

Philosophies of nursing:

Another of the most important artifact that can be included in the philosophies of nursing that I have developed as I have gone through the various lecture classes in the universities. I believe that the philosophies that I have developed whole coursework would make me an able nursing expert who can not only entire patient satisfaction but also ensure proper following of bioethical principles and prevent being involved in any legal obligations. Firstly, nursing professionals need to provide care and promote in ways that put service users, their families, caregivers and others in the centre of decision-making procedures.

They need to be supported to make informed choices about the treatment and care. When patients are kept at decision-making they feel that their autonomy and dignity are respected and this makes them satisfied and feel empowered. A study has also shown that this action has positive health outcomes on people (Park & Cho, 2018). Secondly, another important philosophy that I hold to be quite important in my nursing practice is to be accountable for my own nursing interventions and care that I provide. It is important for the nursing professionals to take responsibility for the care they provide and thereby answer for their own judgments and actions.

The nurses need to carry out their care practices in ways that are in lieu with the agreement of the patients and their family members and should meet up the requirements of their professional bodies and laws (Cerverda et al., 2017). Third, one of the most important philosophies that should become the base of the nursing profession is the effective treatment of every person in their care with equal respect, dignity and humanity. They need to understand the unique needs of each patients, exhibit sensitivity and compassion. They should also provide care in ways that respect all people equally.

When patients feel that they are respected and that their sufferings are understood and empathized, their compliance with the treatment increases and help in development of a string therapeutic relationship (Ward, 2015). Fourth, I also believe that it is the responsibility of the nursing professionals to be up-to-date about the knowledge as well as the skills and apply the knowledge and skills with proper insight, intelligence and understanding in the line with the needs of the individual in their care. The healthcare fields are continuously evolving wit more efficient ways and technologies of handling patients that result in less tress and suffering of patients with speedy recoveries (Aydin et al., 2017). Therefore, I believe that all these should help me in becoming an expert nurse in the future that would help me to ensure patient satisfaction through care that are ethically and legally accepted.

Hobbies:

 Another important artifact that can be included and evaluated is hobbies. I have lived in a nation that had been culturally rich since time immortal. India is a nation, which comprise of about 29 states and each of the particular states have different cultures and civilizations and is indeed one of the most popular countries of the world. The Indian culture had been an amalgamation of the several various cultures that spans across the Indian subcontinent. Therefore, growing in such nation had made me mix up with people from different cultures (Ersntaman et al., 2017).

Academic e-portfolios

I have grown up in a joint family where my all-family members have always encouraged me to look towards all cultures with equal respect and to never be culturally-biased towards a particular culture. I have always respected the traditions, customs and perceptions of all cultures and had never been judgmental regarding any particular culture. One of my hobbies was to collect books that tell about different cultures and thereby felt quite interested about the thoughts and customs of different cultures. I used to feel quite excited and mesmerized to understand about each of their thinking patterns.

As my father had transferable jobs, he used to bring interesting objects that represented culture of each place. As I grew up, I often used to collect documentaries of different cultures all over the world and see them during my leisure times. It used to mesmerize me about how different cultures and traditions have developed their living styles according to their environment and climate. I love watching national Geographic channel during my leisure times where I also get to know about different cultures and customs of different nations. These hobbies had proved to be highly beneficial for me for achieving my aim to be a perfect nursing expert. Nurses might need to handle patients who come from different cultures and provide them culturally competent services.

Culturally competent services make patients happier and help in development of therapeutic relationship with professionals (Meranon et al., 2015). Culturally incompetent practices can lead to dissatisfaction and withdrawal of the treatments from the healthcare centers that might affect the health of patients. This improper care also affects their self-esteem and makes them develop negative feelings. My hobbies had made me develop the attributes of cultural sensitivity, cultural awareness as well as overcoming cultural biasness. I follow the bioethical principle of justice. This principles state that all people should be treated with equal importance and there should be no discrimination of the patients on their backgrounds, castes, cultures, traditions, ethnicity and many others (Melnyk et al., 204). The love for different cultures and developing transparency and open-mindedness while approaching people of other cultures would help me to provide culturally competent care to all people.

Some of the experiments:

The different theories and concepts that I have developed during my graduate years had helped me to earn both clinical and non-clinical nursing skills as well. Clinical skills that I have practiced during the times of my placements in my own nation were appropriate medication administration. Following the proper five rights of medication is an important aspect to maintain patient safety and prevent any form of medication errors in the units (Flinkman et al., 2015). I also need to develop more knowledge on different ways to prevent medication errors that have negative consequences on the health of patients.

Patients might experience more suffering as well as face threatening situations. They are also seen to suffer from long stays at hospitals as well as repeated readmission (Dellafield et al., 2015). Therefore, I believe that during my graduation diploma years, I would get the scope of further enhancing my knowledge and skills and can prevent any form of medication errors.

Resume

Another important aspect that I have also learnt is the effective ways of measuring vital signs of the patients. It is important for the nursing professionals to learn the proper ways of measuring the patient pulse, blood pressure, respirations and the body temperature. These are essential in effective identification of the clinical deterioration and that these parameters need to be mastered consistently and recorded accurately (Sheppard, 2015). However, I want to learn more skills and develop knowledge by which I can work in the position of the registered nurse and provide high quality care for the patient.

short-term goal:

The short-term goal would be to complete successfully the year for graduating in diploma course of nursing. The main aim of the Graduate diploma in nursing would be to develop as a registered nurse with the theoretical knowledge as well as critical thinking skills (Auerbach et al., 2015). This would help in the preparation of for advanced practices in the clinical settings. With the completion of this course, graduates will be able to synthesize and apply advanced nursing concepts in order to lead nursing practices and thereby optimize health outcomes. On successful completion of this graduation level, I would be able to develop a standard set of skills that would help me to manage patients coming with different issues.

This course mainly helps nurses to develop certain set of skills. These include administering and monitoring medications a proper inserting, managing as well as discontinuing intravenous catheters and intra-urethral catheters. Learning the proper skills of vital signs along with effective recognition and addressing of the abnormalities would help to be one of the best methods to recognize deteriorating situations. Registered nurses also need to take the responsibilities of admitting as well as discharging a patient safely as well as appropriately (Haider et al., 2015). The professionals should also need to learn proper documentation as well as helping in safely transferring patients in and out of bed and chair.

Moreover, developing huge amount of knowledge about wound care is extremely important as these are the common cases with which patients often visit healthcare centers and need immediate treatments. Moreover, performing basic life support, and also helping with feeding, dressing and even performing hygiene would be another responsibility of the registered nurses. Ensuring about the patient safety that includes the bioethical principles of non-maleficence that is the cardinal rule of nursing would be also learnt in the course. Therefore, learning all these skills and attributes properly would be my next set of objectives within the next year. This would help me to score well in the graduate diploma course in nursing and hence become an expert professional.

Job responsibility:

My long-term goal is to complete the bridging program, be registered nurse under APHRA, and therefore become a nurse practitioner in the future. They have more power than the registered nurses and they can prescribe medications as well as examine patients and diagnose illness and provide treatment. They can enjoy full practice authority, which means that they do not have to work under the supervision of a doctor and can work independently (Goode et al., 2018).

Most of the hospitals are now trying to recruit nurse practitioners as their experiences as working nurses give them a unique approach towards patient care.  Their services include managing the overall care of the patient and prescribing medication and treatment of patient. they can also order, conduct and interpret diagnostic tests, such as x-rays, EKGs and lab work. They can also diagnose and treat acute and chronic conditions like that of injuries, infections, diabetes and high blood pressure. They can also perform invasive procedures, educate patients on positive health-promoting lifestyle choices and also on disorders, injuries and types pf preventing methods, and counseling.

Job requirements:

Four important standards need to be net by the registered nurse to become the nurse practitioner and get accredited by APHRA. The first one is the effectively assessment of the diagnostic capabilities and the second one is to plan care appropriately and engage others successfully. The third standard is to prescribe and implement proper therapeutic interventions and standard fourth is to properly evaluate outcome and improve the practices. Each of the standards had its own set of cues that needs to be met by me as a registered nurse so that I can successfully become eligible for the role of nursing practitioners.  

Their advanced studies are also seen to qualify them to take on the additional duties that are left to the physicians.  Some of the requirements required for achieving the position of nursing practitioners are being graduates from a high school, pursuing a bachelor of science in nursing, pursuing another graduate degree for about 1.5 to 4 years of programs and practicing as registered nurses and then being certified by specialty nursing boards.  My long-term goal is to complete the entire requirement and then achieve the position of nursing practitioners.

Conclusion:

From the above discussion, it becomes quite clear that I want to become registered nurses and complete my graduate diploma course with great care, dedication and motivation. I aspire to become a nursing practitioner in the end and therefore, I need to gain experience as registered nurse. I would only become a good registered nurse if I complete the graduate diploma of nursing with good marks and huge amount of knowledge. This would help me to reach my goal successfully.

Action plan:

In order to achieve both the long term and the short-term goals, my main aim would be to concentrate on my studies so that I can pass each of the courses with good marks. I often face issues with time management and hence overcoming this barrier would be another important aspect. I would maintain a diary where I would maintain time allocated for each of tasks and follow them properly to overcome time management issues.

Moreover, I also need to remain up-to-date with different modern treatment and technologies. Therefore, I need to ensure that I follow the evidence-based studies. Moreover, I also need to make sure that I develop good communication skills as this forms one of the main foundation of effective teamwork with all healthcare members and help in developing effective therapeutic bonds with patients. Therefore, I would also join communication development workshops and develop my non-pharmacological skills. I would also continue maintaining a reflective journal throughout my course so that I can realize my weakness and strengths and accordingly work my best to overcome the issues.

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