Reply to at least two of your classmates:

Response 1 

Lifelong learning to me, means that knowledge is empowering. At 64, It is a sense of accomplishment, one step at a time. The more you know the more you comprehend the world around you, in life and your career. I want to keep on going. I want to teach nursing students the concepts of research and EBP early on in their education as opposed to waiting until they get to the BSN program, So much information has been learned, and I think it would have been much easier if these concepts were introduced in nursing school. In nursing KSA’s are learned, QSEN (Cronenwett et al., 2007). You may know about something, but you may not understand it.  It enables you to enhance your academic achievement goals and at this moment the BSN. 

An example, as a new ICU nurse, you may know how to suction a patient, but to understand why his/her respirations and HR are elevated, and why he/she is bucking the vent ( meaning the ventilator pressures are high) due to coughing and agitation. This comes with lifelong learning applied skills, knowledge, and the attitude to want to continue learning. “Lifelong learning is an expectation in the professional performance of nurses, which is directly related to the success of students in nursing schools”. “….and use of lifelong strategies in nursing students will lead to improved quality of education, professional competency of nurse and nursing care outcomes.” (Qalehsari, M. Q., et al., 2017). 

“Learning is not a product of schooling but the lifelong attempt to acquire it” Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955) Physicist & Nobel Laureate.

response 2 

Reflection is formed through deep reflection on the event or a certain clinical position. The art of reflection encourages the person to search for and evaluate solutions in equivocal and complicated situations. The process of reflection starts when the person refers to his/her own experience and recollects what has occurred, reconsiders the experience, and reevaluates it. It allows you to recognize your own strengths and weakness and use this to guide on-going learning. By reflection you will develop your skills in self-directed learning, improve motivation, and improve the quality of care you are able to provide (Koshy et al., 2017)

Reflective nursing practice is crucial to advancing nursing science and practice. It allows nurses to critically evaluate their own clinical practice. It is through the process of self-reflection that nurses are able to see where they may make changes to their practice for the better. Furthermore, reflective nursing practice can help nurses have a better understanding of the nursing process and how to put it into action in their own practices. Nurses who take the time to reflect on their job can identify areas in which they are not providing the highest quality care to their patients. For instance, if a nurse learns that she is not providing enough emotional support to her patients, she can modify her routine to improve the quality of care she provides. The nursing process is a series of steps nurses take to assess patients’ needs, develop treatment strategies, implement those strategies, and assess the outcomes of their care. As part of the nursing process, reflective practice is analyzing and evaluating one’s own actions in order to make improvements. In recent years, reflective nursing practice has gained significant traction. In addition, by thinking back on earlier cases and experiences in the clinical setting, nurses can gain a deeper understanding of how to apply the nursing process to their own practice. Reflective nursing practice is vital to the advancement of nursing as a science and an art because it helps nurses enhance their skills and expands their ability to care for patients effectively. In turn, this helps push nursing forward. Taken together, these findings suggest that nurses who regularly engage in self-reflection are significantly more likely to identify areas in which they could benefit from more education or training. Since reflective thinking leads to the development of critical thinking, it is expected that better decisions can be made by nurses in relation to patients, and better communications with patients can thus be established. Reflective nursing practice allows nurses to enhance the care they provide to patients and advance the nursing profession as a whole (Pangh et al., 2019)