Systems-Based Practice

Systems-Based Practice

The Nurse of the Future will demonstrate an awareness of and responsiveness to the larger context of the health care system, and will demonstrate the ability to effectively call on microsystem resources to provide care that is of optimal quality and value [Adapted from ACGME, n.d.].

I have really enjoyed the community health class and the knowledge that I have gained in the past seven weeks. I have learned so much about community nursing and how very important it is to help our communities. All of the videos and the readings that we had really opened my eyes to many different ways the public nursing helps make our community members better.

I believe the biggest thing that I am taking away from the past 7 weeks is that we should all be more invested in public health. Researching for the PowerPoint presentation was an eye opener for me. Before I started, I had no idea where our shelters were or how or what they were used for. Because of hurricane Katrina, the city of Caribou put a provision into place for people with animals. That they could leave their homes and that there would be a place for their pets to go and be safe as well. The town and county EMA directors are constantly learning new ways to improve our plans because of other areas that are going through disasters.

I have always been a believer in paying it forward. Whether it is buying someone a cup of coffee in the drive thru line or paying for someone’s groceries when the card was declined. You never know what someone else is going through at that moment but by your act of kindness it may make all the difference in that person’s life. My family serves meals at the soup kitchen in our community. I felt that it was important to teach my boys to give back to people. I want them to grow up to be involved and to watch out for others. After taking this class I don’t feel that I do enough in my community and that I have so much more that I can offer.

I found the RNRN to be so fascinating. RNRN stands for Registered Nurse Response Network, this organization coordinates sending volunteer RN's to disaster area. I would love to be able to join one of these organizations and really feel like I am making an impact during a disaster strike. I work in the operating room as a First Assist with a surgeon from India and we were planning on going to her country to work in the hospital in her town that has so many needs. We were in the planning stages as there is a lot of work to prepare for, I found myself with a non-healing broken foot requiring 3 operations to fix. I haven’t completely healed, until I do, I am very limited on what I can do. Once I am 100% or at least close to it, I plan to look into volunteering with one of these disaster relief programs for RN’s.