NRS 465 Benchmark – Professional Capstone and Practicum Reflective Journal – Topic 3
Benchmark – Professional Capstone and Practicum Reflective Journal – Topic 3
Reflective practice is an essential aspect of nursing as it allows nurses to reflect on their actions, decisions, and approaches to care delivery and improve their practice and other components of practice. Reflecting on personal and professional bias values allows nurses to foster cultural competence and empathy in their practice and practicum site. My personal values comprise honesty, empathy, and respect for all people, while my professional values include competence, diligence, integrity, and a shared approach to care delivery. Biases, both conscious and unconscious, affect how we interact with others, especially in the workplace and as professionals (Vela et al., 2022). I realize that I have unconscious biases that impact my interactions, like a tendency to like people of my age and from my social background, and even my racial background.
The steps to enhance my awareness about these values and biases and influence on my interactions include taking self-reflection and meditation sessions, participating in diversity and cultural competence training, and getting feedback from colleagues and bosses to attain divergent or diverse perspectives. Additionally, these values and biases impact my practice as they affect my interactions with all stakeholders (Meidert et al., 2021). For instance, empathy and integrity help me to be more understanding with patients and others and ensure that I follow all required steps to provide the best care when dressing their wounds. Again, positive values improve decision-making and foster a warm workplace environment. Conversely, unconscious biases can lead to poor decision-making, a toxic workplace culture, and discrimination.
Implicit biases are unconscious stereotypes and attitudes that people have towards others who are different from them. The biases arise from one’s culture and environment, and negatively impact interactions and treatment of others, including in healthcare (Gopal et al., 2021). Therefore, culture and environment have a significant impact on one’s implicit biases as they shape norms, values, and even stereotypes, leading to biases and influencing perception as well as behaviors. The environment I live and work in has influenced my implicit biases by shaping my perspectives and perceptions of people, especially those different from my race and socioeconomic background. For instance, I grew up in a homogenous environment, and I developed biases towards those who were different from me. However, with increased diversity, I am now more aware of such biases and seek to improve my perspectives and embrace those from different racial and cultural backgrounds. The environment at the practicum site impacts my biases because it is largely comprised of diverse people from different cultural and racial backgrounds. The environment demonstrates the importance of embracing diversity and working with people from different backgrounds.
Self-reflection is a powerful tool as it encourages people to evaluate and examine their biases, assumptions, and stereotypes to improve their overall conduct, including aligning their behavior with the right ethical standards. Jakoben et al. (2022) observe that reflection changes one’s perception of the world, including enhancing one’s understanding of diversity. By critically evaluating values, biases, and actions, individuals can identify areas of weakness, challenge assumptions, and adhere to ethical principles in practice settings. The reflective practice fosters accountability, professionalism, and a commitment to ethical and culturally-compliant patient care. Moral courage entails standing up for what is right, and self-reflection ensures that one understands the effects of their actions, and helps build confidence through the ability to make morally right decisions.
References
Gopal, D. P., Chetty, U., O’Donnell, P., Gajria, C., & Blackadder-Weinstein, J. (2021). Implicit
bias in healthcare: clinical practice, research, and decision making. Future healthcare
journal, 8(1): 40-48. DOI: 10.7861/fhj.2020-0233
Jakobsen, L. M., & Sunde Mæhre, K. (2023). Can a structured model of ethical reflection be
used to teach ethics to nursing students? An approach to teaching nursing students as a
tool for systematic ethical reflection. Nursing open, 10(2): 721-729.
DOI: 10.1002/nop2.1339
Meidert, U., Dönnges, G., Bucher, T., Wieber, F., & Gerber-Grote, A. (2023). Unconscious bias
among health professionals: a scoping review. International journal of environmental
research and public health, 20(16), 6569. DOI: 10.3390/ijerph20166569
Vela, M. B., Erondu, A. I., Smith, N. A., Peek, M. E., Woodruff, J. N., & Chin, M. H. (2022).
Eliminating explicit and implicit biases in health care: evidence and research needs.
Annual review of public health, 43(1), 477-501.
DOI: 10.1146/annurev-publhealth-052620-103528
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Assessment Traits
Benchmark
Assessment Description
Students are required to submit reflective journal entries at specific points throughout the course. These reflective narratives help students identify important learning events that happen throughout the course and the practicum.
Write a reflective journal (250-500 words) to outline how your experience at your practicum site related to the following reflective questions:
- Reflect on your personal and professional values and your conscious and unconscious biases as they relate to your practicum site. Explain what steps you have taken, or will need to take, to become more aware of how these values and biases influence your interactions. How will values and biases impact your practice?
- Based on your own implicit biases, discuss the relationship that one’s culture and environment have on these biases. How has the environment you live and work in shaped your own implicit biases? Is the environment of your practicum site impacting your biases?
- How can self-reflection be used to help us exhibit ethical comportment and moral courage in decision making in our practice?
While APA style is not required for the body of this assignment, solid academic writing is expected.
This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.
You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. A link to the LopesWrite technical support articles is located in Class Resources if you need assistance.
Benchmark Information
This benchmark assignment assesses the following programmatic competencies:
RN-BSN
9.6: Integrate diversity, equity, and inclusion as core to one’s professional identity.
American Association of Colleges of Nursing Core Competencies for Professional Nursing Education
This assignment aligns to AACN Core Competencies 9.5, 9.6, and 10.3