Definitions
The process and outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences, especially through mental, emotional, and behavioral flexibility and adjustment to external and internal demands.
What is resilience?
Acceptance or Empathy
A nurse respects a patient’s decision regarding end of life care, regardless of the fact that the patient’s decision goes against the nurse’s personal beliefs.
What is acceptance?
While preparing a patient’s medications, the nurse notices that the ordered dose of metoprolol is double what the patient received yesterday. Before administering the medication, the nurse references the MAR, notifies the pharmacist, and clarifies the discrepancy.
What is attention to detail?
The action of understanding, being aware, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experiences of another.
What is empathy?
Leadership or Advocacy
A nurse challenges institutional policy when it goes against the patient’s wishes for their care.
What is advocacy?
During an oncology nurse’s fourth consecutive night shift, one of her patients she had been caring for passes away. She is both physically and emotionally exhausted and is grieving the loss of her patient. The next evening, her boss calls her and asks her to pick up an extra shift because they are short-staffed. The nurse declines the request, as she knows that showing up sleep-deprived and emotionally depleted would compromise her ability to provide the focused, attentive, and empathetic care her patients deserve. She takes the next couple of days to prioritize time for her hobbies and makes plans to see her family members and friends.
What is self-care?
A term coined by Stanford psychology professor Carol Dweck: “The ability to reframe perceived failure as opportunities to learn and grow."
What is a growth mindset?
Resilience or Growth Mindset
Following a mistake made by a nurse, they seek out guidance, opportunities for continued education, and space for reflection.
What is a growth mindset?
A nurse is discussing dialysis with a patient who was recently diagnosed with chronic kidney disease. The patient expresses concern with the effect dialysis will have on their quality of life and ability to provide for their family. The nurse responds by educating and helping the patient form a plan that aligns with their wishes, even if it differs from typical recommendations.
What is patient-centered decision making?
A complex and dynamic process that takes place when both patients and nurses feel and make the other feel like an individual human being, requiring awareness on behalf of both parties involved in the therapeutic relationship.
What is acceptance?
Attention to Detail or Integrity
A nurse makes a medication error, which they immediately report per institutional policy, regardless of the fact that no one saw them make the error.
What is integrity?
A new nurse is struggling to stay on top of scheduled tasks and consistently falls behind during their medication passes. An experienced nurse notices and pulls the new nurse aside following their shift. Instead of reporting or reprimanding them, the experienced nurse offers tips, strategies, and support over the next few weeks as they continue to work on time management and efficiency.
What is leadership?