Self-Assessment for Success

Introduction

The aim of this assessment is to provide a reflective account based on my SWOT analysis for my strengths and limitations with regard to my personal and professional development needs as a future professional registrant in contemporary healthcare. A SWOT analysis entails a strategic planning approach which an individual can use to identify his or her strengths, opportunities, threats and weaknesses (Gürel and Tat, 2017). This approach is useful in this assignment because through the identified weaknesses, a development plan can be created to ensure that relevant skills of a professional healthcare registrant are acquired in preparation for a career in this field in future. This work entails a reflective commentary and action plan for my ongoing development and support. The work will also demonstrate initiative and personal responsibility in relation to personal wellbeing according to the NMC code (2018) and lifelong learning.

Part 1: Reflection

Strength: Excellent communication abilities

One of my main strength is excellent communication abilities. This skill plays a critical role in the healthcare registrant’s profession since one of their responsibilities in this field is to maintain effective and proper communication with clients, patients, professionals, carers and users and to supervise the tasks I have asked others to complete for me. These are tasks which require top-notch communication skills, both oratory and written skills. I quite easily understand body and sign language and can also communicate through writing and speaking fluently using the English language. I am a keen listener and pay attention to details. I can also show compassion and empathy at the workplace, offering a listening ear to those with different health challenges.

Agreeably and as supported by evidence, effective communication is of utmost importance in healthcare delivery (Slota et al., 2018) According to Slota et al. (2018), without effective communication, adverse patient outcomes and an increase in healthcare cost would occur. These authors note that effective communication is made of multiple components including language barriers, cultural competency and healthcare literacy. When one of these elements is compromised, a healthcare professional cannot show effective communication. Additionally, for an effective communication in the healthcare system to be reached, both the healthcare provider and patient must clearly understand what is being said or the information being conveyed (Hogg, Hanley and Smith, 2018). Francis (2018) opine that effective communication also reduces the risk of experiencing increased complaints from patients or their families because adequate information will be conveyed to them which allows them to implement preventative measures to reach good health. Moreover, all healthcare professionals, in line with the codes of practice stipulated in NMC (2018), are required to protect the wellbeing and health of people who need or use my services in all situations or circumstances (Francis, 2018). As noted by these researchers, effective communication plays an important role in care delivery which helps reach the mandate of all health professionals stipulated in NMC (2018) which is to protect patients’ wellbeing of patients.

Weakness: Being nervous in extremely challenging situations

One of my weaknesses is being nervous or anxious during extremely challenging situations, for instance, when there is too much work with very little time to complete all the assignments. I believe that this can be a challenge because professional healthcare registrants are needed to maintain high personal conduct standards and calmness during work. It is important for healthcare registrants to behave in a manner which do not threaten or affect their clients’ confidence in the treatment being offered. It is, therefore, necessary to improve one’s confidence as a healthcare professional to deal with and overcome challenging situations to avoid being anxious and nervous.

Literature also discusses the impact that nervousness and anxiety can have on healthcare professionals and care outcome. Evidence by Rasmussen et al. (2015) note that healthcare professionals are vulnerable or at risk of experiencing mental health challenges. These can come from burnout and too much workload. Additionally, it can also come from an imbalance due to the amount of effort needed by their duties, physically and emotionally. As noted by Rasmussen et al. (2015), the emotional demands, exacerbated by limited resources and too much workload gives healthcare professionals a hard time at work. Experience also plays a big role in making healthcare professionals nervous at work. As pointed out by Bidwal et al. (2015), younger healthcare professionals who are less experienced usually have higher stress levels compared to their highly experienced colleagues. Bidwal et al. (2015) claim that with sufficient training, healthcare professionals can learn how to control their emotions (be emotionally intelligent) and learn how to hand difficult situations calmly to ensure that quality care and desired patient outcomes are reached.

Opportunities: training in the area of controlling emotions and boosting my confidence

I have the opportunity to improve my confidence and ability to control my emotions through training and overcome challenging situations. Training opportunities in learning different techniques of controlling my emotions, like meditation and keeping calm can help me during situations like heavy workload and burnout experiences. As a result, I will be able to stay calm in my work during those situations to ensure that high quality care is delivered to patients by myself and colleagues. Through this training, I will be able to face challenging situations at the workplace with confidence. I also have the opportunity to learn from experienced professionals at work, particularly how they deal with difficult situations

Threats: heavy workload and burnout in future

As mentioned earlier, healthcare professionals are at threat of experiencing mental health issues like anxiety or depression due to heavy workloads and burnout. There is a possibility that I will experience such challenges in my future career.

Part 2: Action Plan

I plan to boost my confidence by going through training, going through internship and leading my colleagues (teams) in different group projects where I can how to deal with the challenges of heavy workload and burnout. These opportunities will also enable me to interact with experienced professionals and learn from them on how they deal with different situations. By learning from the best, I will be able to provide safe, effective, efficient, patient confident and patient-centred care as stipulated in NMC (2018) codes of conduct for healthcare professionals.

Conclusion

As a healthcare professional, I am required to protect the wellbeing and health of people who need or use my services in all situations. It is important to have excellent communication skills to ensure that patients and everyone who use or is need of my services understand the information I provide to ensure that high quality care services are given to my patients. Lacking confidence or being nervous at work can hinder care delivery. It is imperative for all healthcare professionals to have effective communication skills and ability to control their emotions at all times to deliver the kind of are that is desired.

Recommendations

It is important to provide nurses with training and development opportunities, to learn how to communicate effectively and how to build their confidence to behave professionally at work.

Continue your journey with our comprehensive guide to Scoping Dietary Interventions for Adolescent Health: Bridging Evidence Gaps.

References

Bidwal, M.K., Ip, E.J., Shah, B.M. and Serino, M.J., 2015. Stress, drugs, and alcohol use among health care professional students: a focus on prescription stimulants. Journal of pharmacy practice, 28(6), pp.535-542.

Francis, G., 2018. Skills and simulation in nursing: a great opportunity or huge challenge?

Gürel, E. and Tat, M., 2017. SWOT analysis: a theoretical review. Journal of International Social Research, 10(51).

Hogg, R., Hanley, J. and Smith, P., 2018. Learning lessons from the analysis of patient complaints relating to staff attitudes, behaviour and communication, using the concept of emotional labour. Journal of clinical nursing, 27(5-6), pp.e1004-e1012.

Rasmussen, V., Turnell, A., Butow, P., Juraskova, I., Kirsten, L., Wiener, L., Patenaude, A., Hoekstra‐Weebers, J., Grassi, L. and IPOS Research Committee, 2016. Burnout among psychosocial oncologists: an application and extension of the effort–reward imbalance model. Psycho‐Oncology, 25(2), pp.194-202.

Slota, M., McLaughlin, M., Bradford, L., Langley, J.F. and Vittone, S., 2018. Visual intelligence education as an innovative interdisciplinary approach for advancing communication and collaboration skills in nursing practice. Journal of Professional Nursing, 34(5), pp.357-363.

Appendices

Appendix 1: Action Plan